#IFFIWood, 24 November 2022

Kurangu Pedal captures a child's interest in learning to ride a bicycle while the father doesn’t know to ride a cycle. “The story kept on lingering in my mind as cycle was the one of the most intriguing things in my childhood. Learning to ride a cycle gives one a confidence,  that pushed me to make a movie”, said Kamalakannan, director of the movie.

While interacting with the media and festival delegates at one of the ‘Table Talks’ sessions being organised by PIB on the side-lines of the 53rd International Film Festival of India in Goa, Kamalakannan said Kurangu Pedal captures a generation's emotional connect with bicycle.

Kamalakannan said that “Cycle reminds of our childhood and through the movie the audience is also reminded of their childhood”, when asked what interested him to make a movie about cycle. He added that the innocence of child artists entwined with their playfulness, friendship bonds and emotions leave the viewers nostalgic.

The director when asked about the competition from high budget movies to his movie, he said that it’s the storyline, tight screenplay and performances which is important for a movie to reach larger audiences.

Speaking about his experience in the film, actor Kaali Venkat accepted that despite having acted in more than 90 films in Tamil, he learnt a lot from the child artistes who have debuted in this movie. Adding to it, story-writer Rasi Alagappan expressed delight that the director has beautifully brought it on to the screen while faithfully capturing the emotions in the story.

The film, based on Rasi Alagappan’s short story ‘Cycle’, is a contender for Golden Peacock award in the International Competition Category at IFFI 53. The music of this visually delightful and nostalgic film has been scored by Ghibran with child artist Santosh playing the lead character “Maari’ and actor Kaali Venkat playing the role ‘Kandasamy’, his father.

About the movie

Director: Kamalakannan S

Producer: #Montage, UVW Business Pvt Ltd.

Screenplay: Prabhakar, Kamalakannan

Cinematographer: Sumee Baskaran

Editor: Shivanandeeswaran

Cast: Kaali Venkat, Santosh, Ragavan, Gnanasekar, Rathish, A.E. Sai Ganesh

2022 | Tamil | Colour | 119 mins.

Synopsis:

The movie, set in the 1980s, is about the child protagonist Maariyappan (Maari) and his quest to learn to ride a bicycle. The village sees its first cycle-on-rent shop. Denied money to take a cycle on rent, Maari clandestinely gets money from his pampering mother to rent a cycle to learn cycling and now his cycling sessions are peppered with interesting events and run-ups with strangers.

Director: Kamalakannan S. is a film director and a producer in the Tamil film industry. His directorial debut was Madhubaanakadai(2012), followed by Vattam and Kurangu Pedal (2022).

Producer: Montage is a film production company into production design, advertising, budgeting and releasing of feature films. They have produced Madhubaanakadai (2012), Kadhal Kan Kattuthe (2017) and Kurangu Pedal (2022).

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PIB IFFI CAST AND CREW | Nadeem / Suhas / Darshana | IFFI 53 - 97

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