Aruna Mathew

Film producer duos are not very common in Mollywood. To cite one example now, Aruna Mathew and Shaji Mathew Shaji Mathew is a Malayalam independent art movie >> Read More... are two Mollywood producers who jointly had produced Malayalam movies. In her debut role as a film producer, Aruna Mathew never turned out to be a solo producer ever.

She joined hands with Shaji Mathew who made a film named “Sexy Durga” which entered many international film festivals and even won many laurels. Aruna Mathew’s first venture was “Ozhivu Divasathe Kali" (2016) and “Sexy Durga” (2017).

Her first venture was "Ozhivu Divasathe Kali’ which was directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, and was relied on the small story with similar name by Unni R. The making of the film was so unique that the film had only 70 shots, with the second half of the film being just a single shot. This film had limited screening but has taken stock of real incidents that are happening in the society.

This film dealt with corruption prevailing in the society and it was based on election game in Kerala. The film won even Kerala State Award. The film was showcased at many film festivals in India. This film had no proper screenplay but had a good cinematography by Indrajith S. and editing by Appu N. Bhattathiri.

After the success of her first venture, Aruna Mathew selected another bold theme, and considered Sanal Kumar Sasidharan to direct her second venture. Even her second venture was really based on Kerala’s parochial society. Sanal was a short filmmaker and was an apt choice for the role of a director for Aruna Mathew’s next project titled as ‘’S Durga”.

The film had an impressive cast of an unknown face such as Rajshri Deshpande along with Kannan Nayar. Sujeesh KS, Baiju Netto, and Arun Sol. “S Durga” (earlier titled as 'Sexy Durga') was a film that got selected in many international film festival for a private screening and now waiting for a public screening too in the theatres in January 2019. It is said that "S Durga" got notable acclaim and award at Pesaro Film Festival, International Film Festival of Valencia, Spain and in Yerevan International Film Festival too. The film won best International Feature Narrative at Guanajuato International Film Festival.

The greatest contribution that Aruna Mathew and Shaji Mathew can have in Indian filmmaking is that their films generate huge interest among critics, film festival members across the globe. It may be noted that despite the kind of films Aruna Mathew gets involved hardly raises an eyebrow of any funding from big financiers.

But definitely, the film gets produced or either made by crowd funding procedures. Her filmmaking concept adheres to liberal views of our society. Her film “Sexy Durga” (S Durga) is facing heat over the release and even was barred from screening at Goa international film festival on account of religious sentiments as proclaimed by some political mindsets of our society. The film was later dragged to High Court of Kerala to get a private screening at Goa festival. But that did not happen.