Vipin Vijay does it again

Vipin Vijay had been in the news some months back when his short film Video Game won the Tiger Award at the prestigious Rotterdam Fest. And now, Vipin, the young filmmaker from Kannur in Kerala, who is presently based in Thiruvananthapuram, is all set to make news again, for two reasons. First of all, his latest venture titled Poomaram (A Flowering Tree), has been selected for the Indian Panorama section for the forthcoming International Festival of India, to be held in Goa. The film, which in the maker's own opinion, "is a mythographic observation of the interconnections among ancient menstrual rites and the development of agriculture, mathematics, writing, calendars, and other realms of knowledge", is yet to get a premiere screening anywhere.

And almost simultaneously, Vipin Vijay, who had made short films like Kshurasya Dhara (The Razor's Edge), Hawa Mahal, Tatwamasi, Video Game etc plus a few documentaries, is one of the winners of the Sanskriti Award for 2007. The awards, bestowed by the Delhi-based Sanskriti Pratishthan, are given in the fields of Literature, Journalism, Art, Music-Dance-Theatre, and Social and Cultural Achievements. Vipin gets the award for cultural achievement. Says an excited and obviously-happy Vipin: "This is a great thing for a young filmmaker like me. And this also proves that newer and experimental kind of films like the ones I make too get a breathing space here. It's good in all respects for short filmmakers like me".