Indian film gets six nominations in Houston Filmfest

The other categories in which it has been nominated are best direction, best screenplay, best feature, best foreign film and best family film.

Produced by the Children‘s Film Society of India, Mahek had its world premiere at the 51st London Film Festival 2007 and later was screened at several International Film Festivals including the 32nd Cleveland Film Festival, and at St Louis, Chicago, Frankfurt and Sydney.

The cast of the film include Shreya Sharma, Anuya Bhagwat, Madan Deodhar, Anuja Borkar, Dheeresh Joshi, Madhavi Gadgil and Lalan Sarang.

The international crew was made up of music composer Mathieu Lamboley based in Paris, associate director Matthias Schwelm based in Berlin, and second associate director Sania Jhankar studying at Tisch, New York.

The Indian crew had DOP Mrinal Desai, co-Writer Kedar Dharwadkar, editor Suchitra Sathe, sound recordist Anmol Bhave, re-recording artists Anup Dev-Subir Das, costume designer Dinaaz Gabrani and Makeup director Kavita Koparkar.

Legendary artist Mario Miranda did the sketches for this film.

Also, it is the only Indian film at the festival which will have 52 feature film premieres with emphasis on the American and International Independent Feature films.

Director Kanade told indiantelevision.com, “My first feature film Mahek looks at the world through the imaginative eyes of children and examines their rights. What children miss most is respect. Respect for them and respect for their imagination. For a child, a flower is as important as food, shelter and clothing. The education system in India could put more emphasis on aesthetics and philosophy.”

Kanade is an alumnus in film direction from the Film and Television Institute of India(FTII) in Pune. He also completed the Producers Program from UCLA.

His thesis film Chaitra won three National Film Awards and two National Awards at MIFF.