Actor Santhy Balachandran is back in Kochi after a hectic round of film festivals at Neuchatel, Switzerland and London with her film Ennennum (Now and Forever) directed by Shalini Ushadevi. The film won the international critics’ award at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) and had its international premiere at the London Indian Film Festival. Santhy cannot keep the excitement about the response Ennennum garnered in Europe, the conversations it started and, most importantly, having been part of the film.
It is an experience, she calls, “as challenging as it was rewarding.” Her eyes lighting up as she talks about Ennennum , her admiration for the director, Shalini Ushadevi, unabashed. The film, screened first at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), 2023, is a layered take questioning at a very simplistic level the notion of ‘eternal love’ and what constitutes ‘forever’ in the context.
The questions asked are universal, which explains the resonance at international festivals, Santhy reasons. “The film explores many things — like the larger implication of a ‘forever love’. It is also a meditation on marriage, love, children.
..Shalini explores various strands in the film.
Even when I read the script for the first time in 2019, I found it very interesting,” she says. Santhy reminisces how, once she read the script, she desperately wanted the role. Santhy with director Shalini Ushadevi| Photo Credit:SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT �.