# Pebbles (கூழாங்கல்)
**Pebbles** (Tamil: கூழாங்கல், *Koozhangal*) is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by P. S. Vinothraj in his feature debut, following an alcoholic father and his young son on a 13 km walk across a drought-stricken landscape of [Tamil Nadu](https://www.edgepedia.org/tamil-nadu) after the boy tears up their bus fare[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles). It won the Tiger Award for best film at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam and was selected as India's official entry for the 94th Academy Awards[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles) • [2](https://www.fipresci-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Newsletter-Oct-2021.pdf).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Film | Pebbles (கூழாங்கல், Koozhangal), India, 2021, 74 minutes, Tamil language, drama[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles) |
| Director and writer | P. S. Vinothraj, his feature debut[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles) |
| Producers | Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan through Rowdy Pictures, with Learn and Teach Production[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles) |
| Premiere | World premiere, 4 February 2021, International Film Festival Rotterdam[3](https://letterboxd.com/film/pebbles/details/) |
| Principal cast | Karuththadaiyaan as the father Ganapathy; Chellapandi as the son Velu, both newcomers[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pebbles) |
| Top prize | Tiger Award, IFFR 2021; the first Tamil film to win it[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles) • [5](https://tamil.filmibeat.com/news/koozhangal-wins-the-tiger-award-at-international-film-festival-rotterdam-080051.html) |
| Oscar entry | India's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards; eliminated at the shortlist stage in December 2021[2](https://www.fipresci-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Newsletter-Oct-2021.pdf) • [6](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/oscars-2022-shortlist-koozhangal-out-rintu-thomas-writing-with-fire-7684592/) |
| Key crew | Music Yuvan Shankar Raja; cinematography Vignesh Kumulai and Jeya Parthipan; editing Ganesh Siva[3](https://letterboxd.com/film/pebbles/details/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and setting
The film is set in and around the village of Arittapatti in southern Tamil Nadu, where the inhabitants depend entirely on agriculture that a long drought has devastated; the fields have become desert, livestock eat the last leaves, and women wait hours to pull muddy water from the well[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles). Ganapathy, a chain-smoking alcoholic who abuses his wife, sets out to fetch her back from her parents' village after she flees his violence, forcing his young son Velu to come along[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pebbles).
At the in-laws' house Ganapathy causes a violent scene, and in revenge the boy tears up the money for the return bus journey. Father and son are left to walk 13 kilometers home on one of the hottest days of the year[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles). Neither they nor the viewer ever meets the mother; instead the film shows other women of the region, waiting by the only waterhole or hunting rats, living lives indistinguishable from hers[7](https://silverscreenindia.com/movies/reviews/pebbles-review-ps-vinothrajs-film-is-a-marvellous-portrait-of-a-landscape-and-its-people/).
The title refers to an old practice of people in dry places: holding a smooth pebble in the mouth triggers saliva and eases thirst, and the boy Velu does this on the long walk[8](https://cinematechhaddad.com/Cinematech_All_Photos/CIFF43_pdfNo3.pdf) • [9](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/pebbles-2021-film-review-by-jennie-kermode).
## Production
Vinothraj built the story from a real event in his own family. At a press interaction during the 52nd [International Film Festival of India](https://www.edgepedia.org/international-film-festival-of-india) in Goa, he said the film is based on the suffering his sister and her small child endured because of an alcoholic husband[10](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1775596&lang=2®=48).
After a long search for a location he chose Arittapatti, in the Melur area near Madurai, and recruited villagers from surrounding communities as actors; a book by crew member Aravind Siva describes roughly two years of production in which the team lived and worked in the area, with the director's mother and sisters cooking for the crew[11](https://www.hindutamil.in/news/supplements/hindu-talkies/1307208-the-story-of-the-formation-of-pebbles.html) • [12](https://www.dinamani.com/amp/story/editorial-articles/special-stories/2024/jan/09/koozhangal-book-introduction-review-4136602.html).
The credits name [Nayanthara](https://www.edgepedia.org/nayanthara) and [Vignesh Shivan](https://www.edgepedia.org/vignesh-shivan) as producers through their company Rowdy Pictures, which also holds world sales rights[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles). A Tamil-language report notes a distinction behind that credit: the film was made by Vinothraj with friends and collaborators, and Rowdy Pictures took on the cost of submitting it to festivals and then acquired worldwide distribution after judging its quality[13](https://tamil.webdunia.com/article/tamil-cinema-news-movie-film/who-is-koozhangal-movie-producer-121102600079_1.html). It was the company's first release[5](https://tamil.filmibeat.com/news/koozhangal-wins-the-tiger-award-at-international-film-festival-rotterdam-080051.html).
## Awards and Oscar entry
At the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam, where the film had its world premiere in the Tiger Competition, it won the Tiger Award for best film[1](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles). Tamil-language press reported it as the first Tamil film to win the award[5](https://tamil.filmibeat.com/news/koozhangal-wins-the-tiger-award-at-international-film-festival-rotterdam-080051.html), and *Screen Daily* noted it was the second Tiger win for India in the six years since [Rotterdam](https://www.edgepedia.org/rotterdam) stopped awarding three equal trophies, India having never received the prize before that change[14](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/pebbles-rotterdam-review/5156889.article).
In October 2021 the Film Federation of India, announced at a press conference in Kolkata by its president Firdausul Hasan with a jury headed by Shaji N. Karun, selected [Koozhangal](https://www.edgepedia.org/koozhangal) as India's entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 94th Academy Awards[2](https://www.fipresci-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Newsletter-Oct-2021.pdf). On 22 December 2021 the Academy announced its shortlists, and Koozhangal was out of the race, while the Indian documentary *Writing with Fire* advanced[6](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/oscars-2022-shortlist-koozhangal-out-rintu-thomas-writing-with-fire-7684592/).
Other honors include best film in the Asian Film Competition at the 20th Dhaka International Film Festival[15](https://fipresci.org/report/dhaka-2022-rebeiro/), a best-film selection at New Directors/New Films in New York[16](https://tamil.filmibeat.com/news/koozgangal-is-selected-for-screening-in-molodist-internation-film-festival-083472.html), nominations for Achievement in Directing and Achievement in [Cinematography](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinematography) at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards[17](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/pebbles), and, per IMDb's awards listing, 11 wins and 19 nominations overall, including a 2022 Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best International Film and a Silver Screen Award for Best Director at the Singapore International Film Festival[18](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13710226/awards/).
## Reception
Critical response was strongly favorable. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 100% Tomatometer from 11 reviews[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pebbles). Richard Brody of *The New Yorker* called the ending among the most memorable in recent cinema, and Jennie Kermode of Eye for Film rated it 4.5/5, calling it "a masterpiece of visual storytelling"[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pebbles). Reviewers singled out the framing and the child performance: Jay Weissberg in *Variety* praised its "exquisite use of framing and a deeply sympathetic, never cloying child as protagonist"[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pebbles). On IMDb the film holds a 6.9/10 rating from about 1,200 users[19](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13710226/ratings/).
Critics also placed the film in a wider context. A Silverscreen India review described it as part of a new wave on the peripheries of [Tamil cinema](https://www.edgepedia.org/tamil-cinema), in which young filmmakers with little or no filmmaking experience produce striking experiments, and noted that Vinothraj approaches the film like a still photographer, relegating the region's water scarcity to the background until a long, dialogue-free final passage[7](https://silverscreenindia.com/movies/reviews/pebbles-review-ps-vinothrajs-film-is-a-marvellous-portrait-of-a-landscape-and-its-people/).
## The director
P. S. Vinothraj was born in 1988 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He left school in class IV because of his family's poverty and worked from about age 8 as a child laborer in a textile factory in Tiruppur for roughly 11 years[2](https://www.fipresci-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Newsletter-Oct-2021.pdf). He then sold DVDs at a roadside shop in Chennai, where he met people from the Tamil film industry, became an assistant director on films by A. Sarkunam, and worked with the postmodernist theater company Manal Magudi in Kovilpatti, where he shot short films before directing *Pebbles*[2](https://www.fipresci-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Newsletter-Oct-2021.pdf) • [20](https://www.seminci.com/peliculas/pebbles/). His second feature, *Kottukkaali*, followed in 2024[11](https://www.hindutamil.in/news/supplements/hindu-talkies/1307208-the-story-of-the-formation-of-pebbles.html).
## References
1. [Pebbles / Koozhangal, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/distribution/2017/films/pebbles)
2. [FIPRESCI India Newsletter, October 2021](https://www.fipresci-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Newsletter-Oct-2021.pdf)
3. [Pebbles (2021), Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/film/pebbles/details/)
4. [Pebbles, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pebbles)
5. [Koozhangal wins the Tiger Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Filmibeat Tamil](https://tamil.filmibeat.com/news/koozhangal-wins-the-tiger-award-at-international-film-festival-rotterdam-080051.html)
6. [Oscars 2022 shortlist: India's official entry Koozhangal bows out, The Indian Express](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/oscars-2022-shortlist-koozhangal-out-rintu-thomas-writing-with-fire-7684592/)
7. [Pebbles Review, Silverscreen India](https://silverscreenindia.com/movies/reviews/pebbles-review-ps-vinothrajs-film-is-a-marvellous-portrait-of-a-landscape-and-its-people/)
8. [Cinematech bulletin, 43rd Chennai International Film Festival](https://cinematechhaddad.com/Cinematech_All_Photos/CIFF43_pdfNo3.pdf)
9. [Pebbles (2021) review, Eye for Film](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/pebbles-2021-film-review-by-jennie-kermode)
10. ['Koozhangal' India's official entry for 94th Academy Awards, Press Information Bureau](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1775596&lang=2®=48)
11. [திரை நூலகம்: 'கூழாங்கல்' உருவான கதை, Hindu Tamil Thisai](https://www.hindutamil.in/news/supplements/hindu-talkies/1307208-the-story-of-the-formation-of-pebbles.html)
12. [கூழாங்கல்-திரைப்பட அனுபவங்கள் நூல் அறிமுகம், Dinamani](https://www.dinamani.com/amp/story/editorial-articles/special-stories/2024/jan/09/koozhangal-book-introduction-review-4136602.html)
13. [Who is Koozhangal movie producer, Webdunia Tamil](https://tamil.webdunia.com/article/tamil-cinema-news-movie-film/who-is-koozhangal-movie-producer-121102600079_1.html)
14. ['Pebbles': Rotterdam Review, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/pebbles-rotterdam-review/5156889.article)
15. [Shining Moments, 20th Dhaka International Film Festival, FIPRESCI](https://fipresci.org/report/dhaka-2022-rebeiro/)
16. [Koozhangal selected for Molodist festival, Filmibeat Tamil](https://tamil.filmibeat.com/news/koozgangal-is-selected-for-screening-in-molodist-internation-film-festival-083472.html)
17. [Pebbles (Koozhangal), Asia Pacific Screen Awards](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/pebbles)
18. [Pebbles (2021) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13710226/awards/)
19. [Pebbles (2021) Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13710226/ratings/)
20. [Pebbles, Seminci (Valladolid International Film Festival)](https://www.seminci.com/peliculas/pebbles/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Tamil films of the 2020s › Tamil films of 2020 and 2021*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license