OFFICIAL SELECTION “LAJJAWATI” WRITTEN BY SUMATHY RAM & CHARLES LEOPARDO (US)

BIO:

SUMATHY RAM’s directorial debut “VISHWA THULASI” was preceded by her studies of English Literature, poetry-writing, musical-lyrics, album-production, and short film production. VISHWA THULASI, an Indian feature film, with the leading stars of Mammootty and Nandita Das, won the Tamil Nadu State award for Second-Best Film of 2004, and for Best Choreography. Also, the film won the Gold Remi Award for Best Musical Composition, and the Gold Special Jury Award for First Feature at the 38th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival.

Currently in pre-production at SUNMOONSTARS FILM STUDIO, Sumathy’s second feature, titled “LAJJAWATI”, is a classic tale of desire and destiny set in pre-independence 1940’s India. It combines the exotic beauty of “Memoirs of a Geisha” with the historical scope of “Gandhi”, and a forbidden romantic love in the mode of “The Bridges of Madison County”. LAJJAWATI is an authentic Asian story replete with Indian colors, customs, and characteristically complex emotions; yet in English with a view to the international film entertainment market.

LAJJAWATI is larger than life, so Sumathy is also in the process of adapting her original screenplay for LAJJAWATI into “LAJJAWATI: PREQUEL” & “LAJJAWATI: SEQUEL,” which she is co-writing with her creative partner, American writer, and artist, Charles Leopardo.

Sumathy lives in Houston and her ranch home is in Central Texas, USA. She is developing her artistic concepts of LAJJAWATI into a collection of masterpiece works of art in Oil paintings with a team of great artists from India.

“LAJJAWATI” WRITTEN BY SUMATHY RAM & CHARLES LEOPARDO (US)

LOGLINE: (Genre: Epic / Historiographic Metafiction)

A Story of Desire & Destiny from the Land of Unity in Diversity.

STORY OUTLINE:

LAJJAWATI, an Indian epic-styled classic drama of love and glory is a collaboration of East and West. By and large, it’s all about transcendence, revealing the new possibilities of unity in diversity of India, and the world at large.

The title “LAJJAWATI” refers to a touch-me-not-Mimosa plant, so-called because its leaves fold up when touched. The leading character, LALITHA, an orthodox Brahmin lady, tends to react with mutism in response to trauma, and this tendency to close after securing a shock is what earns her the nickname “LAJJAWATI.”