Vanaprastham

Vanaprastham
DVD cover
Directed by	Shaji N. Karun
Screenplay by	Shaji N. Karun Raghunath Paleri Dialogues: Raghunath Paleri
Story by	Pierre Assouline
Produced by	Pierre Assouline Mohanlal (co-producer)
Starring	Mohanlal Suhasini Maniratnam
Cinematography	Renato Berta Santosh Sivan
Edited by	A. Sreekar Prasad Joseph Guinvarch
Music by	Zakir Hussain
Production companies	Euro American Films Pranavam Arts CLT-UFA International (in association with)
Distributed by	SND Films (France) Pranavam Arts (Kerala)
Release date	January 2000 (2000-01) (in theatres)
Running time	119 minutes
Countries	France India
Language	Malayalam

Vanaprastham: The Last Dance (French: Vanaprastham: La Dernière Danse) is a 1999 Indo-French psychological drama period film in Malayalam-language that was directed by Shaji N. Karun.^[1] It was produced by Pierre Assouline and co-produced by Mohanlal. The screenplay was written by Karun and Raghunath Paleri (who also wrote the dialogues) based on a story by Assouline. It features Mohanlal in the lead role, with Suhasini Maniratnam, Mattannur Sankarankutty Marar, Kalamandalam Gopi, Venmani Haridas, and Kukku Parameshwaram in supporting roles. The film's music was composed by Zakir Hussain.

Set in the 1950s in Travancore, the plot follows a lower-caste Kathakali artiste Kunjikuttan (Mohanlal). Subhadra (Suhasini), from an aristocratic family, sees him perform Arjuna. Lost between reality and fiction she falls in love with the character. Their relationship leads to the birth of a child, who is hidden away by Subhadra from Kunjikuttan for almost a lifetime.

The film premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 1999, where it was selected in the Un Certain Regard section, and was theatrically released in France on 13 October 1999 and in India in January 2000. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the American Film Institute's 1999 AFI Fest (Los Angeles International Film Festival). It won the Special Prize of the Jury at the Istanbul International Film Festival and the FIPRESCI prize at the Mumbai International Film Festival. The film won three awards at the 47th National Film Awards —Best Feature Film, Best Actor (Mohanlal), and Best Editing (A. Sreekar Prasad), and six awards at the 1999 Kerala State Film Awards, including Best Director and Best Actor (Mohanlal). In 2014, Vanaprastham was screened retrospective at the 45th International Film Festival of India in the Celebrating Dance in Indian cinema section.