I Am Kalam director Nila Madhab Panda's Halkaa to premiere at the Montreal International Film Festival

New Delhi: National Award-winning filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda’s Halkaa will premiere worldwide at 21st Festival International du Film Pour Enfants de Montreal Film festival (FIFEM). [caption id=“attachment_4380647” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Nila Madhab Panda. Image from Facebook/MyCityLinks[/caption] It will compete with six international children’s films in the official section and will have its world premiere on Thursday, read a statement. The fest, underway in Montreal, Canada, will go on till 11 March. Halkaa is about aspiration and dreams of an eight-year-old boy living in a slum in Delhi. It stars child actor Tathastu as Pichku, and Ranvir Shorey and Paoli Dam as Pichku’s parents. “It’s a new treat in children cinema space in India. I have tried to express words like fantasy, dreams, aspiration in a child’s term. Yet it’s a complicated adult’s world and how he imagined a life in that space,” said Panda, known for Kadvi Hawa and I Am Kalam.  Halkaa is Panda’s second film with children to be selected at FIFEM, after I Am Kalam. He won the Prix Du Public for the film in 2010. “It’s a nostalgia to have the world premiere at FIFEM Montreal. Such a great feeling to have Halkaa to be part of the competition,” he said. The film is a musical treat with sounds by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. It is produced by Shiva Nadar Foundation in association with Akshay Kumar Parija and Nila Madhab Panda.