MUMBAI: After the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected the Malayalam film Adaminte Makan Abu, India‘s official entry to the Oscars, with the comment that the film was "technically too shoddy to make the grade with other contenders", a group of technicians have got together to get the film a technically correct look.

"Year after year we keep missing out on the Oscar shortlist because our entries lag behind technically. So we felt the need to enhance the technical quality of the film substantially," said the production team in a statement.

At the 58th National Film Awards last year, the film won four major national awards for best film, best actor, best cinematography and best background score.

Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty, who is working on the project currently, said, "I am re-designing and re-mixing the sound for the film, so it would stand a better chance of making it into the final list after the Oscar submission. I am adding more sounds, and re-designing the entire sound scape and re-mixing the music in surround sound with the thematic aspect of the movie."

Adaminte Makan Abu tells the story of a poor perfume (attar) seller Abu whose only wish in life is to perform a Haj pilgrimage, which he strives hard to fulfil. But at the verge of the fulfillment, he opts out when he fears that the means is not fully legitimate. The film, directed by Salim Ahmed under the banner of Alan Media, stars Salim Kumar and Zarina Wahab.