A flower named Chezhiyan: Sreekar Prasad remembers the filmmaker whose final film heads to Tokyo

Chezhiyan R. had many films in him. Whenever we met, he would talk about more than one script idea at a time, and I would suggest ways of developing them. There was always another story he wanted to tell, another possibility he wanted to explore. I never imagined that one day these conversations would come to an abrupt end.

His sudden passing this Julyleft us shaken. It is then, at once, heartening and particularly poignant to see his last directorial Kaakithamalar(The Paper Flower) posthumously make its way to the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival’s Asian Future section later this week.