India’s first feature film starring only indigenous people to premiere at Iffi

Panaji: ‘Dhabari Quruvi’, the first feature film in Indian film history with a cast of only indigenous people, will be screened at the 53rd International Film Festival of India (Iffi).
Directed by national award-winning filmmaker Priyanandan, the 104 minute-long feature film on the rise of a tribal phoenix from the ashes, will have its world premiere in the Indian Panorama section of the festival.
The film, entirely shot in the tribal language of Irula, tells the elevating story of girls belonging to a tribal community in Kerala.
In Irula, Dhabari Quruvi means ‘a sparrow with an unknown father’. The mythological bird, which is part of the tribal folklore, captures the untold tales of the unseen people who suffer quietly, who yearn to break the shackles of injustice, whose agonies and struggles the film seeks to bring to light.
The actors comprise sixty people, belonging to Irula, Muduka, Kurumba and Vaduka tribal communities of Attappadi, a scheduled tribe hamlet of Kerala. Many of the actors had not ever seen a film in their lives. They were selected from an acting workshop conducted at Attappadi where around 150 people participated.
Meenakshi, Shyamini, Anuprasobhini and Muruki play main roles in the film. The cast also includes Nanjiyamma, the tribal woman from Attappady who got the 68th National Film Award for Best Female Singer last year.