Evening Shadows

<p>In a small town in Southern India that lives within a cocoon of traditions and social morality, when a young gay man Kartik (Devansh Doshi) comes out to his mother Vasudha (Mona Ambegaonkar), her entire world comes crashing down. She has no one to turn to for dispelling her fears and doubts, to understand her loving son’s truth. Moreover, as a woman trapped within a patriarchal conservative society, her biggest challenge is to deal with her dogmatic husband Damodar (Ananth Mahadevan), and the conservative society around her. is a universal story about a mother-son bonding and its emotional strength to withstand the ravages of time and harsh realities. The script of the film was written in 2009, and some part of production money was raised through crowdfunding by the production company . The shooting of the film was carried out in November and December 2016 in and around Mysore, Karnataka. The film features very scenic locations like Balmuri, Karigatta, Srirangapatna and several archaeological sites at Talkad. The post production of the film was completed by end of 2017. In a landmark decision, the gave the film a UA certificate in December 2017. premiered on 25 February 2018 at in Sydney to sold-out show. Director , lead actress , actress Kala Ramnathan and co-producer Maulik Thakkar attended the world premiere. The film had its Indian Premiere at the on 1 March 2018. It was the Opening Film at the Lonavala International Film Festival on September 7, 2018, a day after the . has traveled to more than 75 international film festivals across the world. It has won 25 awards including jury and audience awards for Best Film, as well as awards for Best performance for Mona Ambegaonkar and a Best Cinematography award. It was the closing film at . Eminent actress watched the film at the Lonavala International Film Festival on 7 September 2018 at Trios Plaza theater and said, “I feel that all families, especially in our country, should see this film. I hope that a big studio, or a big producer will embrace this film and present it. I strongly feel that this film will run, it will be successful at the box office. I have full trust that this film will be a hit.” She also said she will try to help in mainstream release of the film. As of April 2019 the movie is streaming on . The film features one song Surmaee Shaam composed and sung by legendary classical musician . The lyrics are written by and the music arrangement is by Shantanu Nandan Herlekar. The soundtrack has been released on platforms like , etc. 10% of the money raised through crowdfunding on Wishberry is donated by Solaris Pictures to facilitate formation of a support group for parents of LGBTQ children in India, along the lines of -type groups in the USA. The parent support group in India was formed as . The group now has around 50 parents (mothers and fathers) of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender children. They have taken part in workshops, marched in pride walks and also have been speakers at panel discussions at events like KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival.</p>