Filmmaker Madonne Ashwin is currently basking in the success of his Tamil-language political satire film, Mandela. For those unaware, the movie that marked Ashwin’s directorial debut in the entertainment world ended up bagging two National Awards. He won the Indira Gandhi Award for the Best Debut Film of a Director and Best Screenplay (Dialogues) categories at the 68th National Film Awards 2022.
The official announcement of the accolades was made on Friday, July 22. The National Award-winning film now streams on the OTT platform Netflix.
The film, which is titled after the late South African President Nelson Mandela, is set against the backdrop of a small village following the panchayat election system. The movie chronicles the plight of two political parties to gain power in the village. However, in a weird twist of fate, a local Dalit barber’s vote ends up becoming the tie-breaker between the parties to determine the fate of the entire election. The movie was released on Star Vijay on April 4, 2021, after which it was released internationally via Netflix, the following day.
After bagging the National Awards, Madonne Ashwin in an interaction with Cinema Express stated that he is extremely happy upon witnessing his hard work has paid off. He explained that it wasn’t one man’s job behind the success of his film, instead, it was the effort of his entire team that resulted in positive reception and critical acclamation of the project. The filmmaker felt extremely elated that a political satire was recognized by cinemagoers.
Ashwin said, “I am so happy that the hard work has paid off. I must say that this is not a one-man’s effort. It is also my team that has won the awards. All the more, I am elated that a political satire has been recognized. It is a new thing because; usually, such films may come under the notion that they are created with political agendas. But this film managed to not hurt anyone in the process. I see the film’s biggest success to be the recognition it got among the common people.”
Mandela features actor Yogi Babu in the titular role, meanwhile, Sheela Rajkumar, Sangili Murugan, GM Sundar, and Kanna Ravi essay pivotal roles in the film. Bankrolled jointly under the banner of YNOT Studios and Open Window Productions, the music of the political satire was composed by Bharath Shankar.
