The Malayalam film Santham has been included in the competition category of the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival, marking India's return to the limelight in the event. India used to be the focus of the Moscow festival during the Soviet era.

With Santham getting a place among the 17 movies in the competition category, film critics say India is slowly but surely getting back into the limelight at the international event. The Soviet breakup, followed by the rapid westernization of the country's cultural space threw Indian films, once popular among Russians, beyond the borders of new Russia, says Yuri Korchagov, the country's most eminent critic of Indian films.

The Moscow festival, where Indian movies and film celebrities once used to be the central attraction, also died out for a while in the aftermath of Soviet disintegration.

The initial years following the revival of the event in the latter part of 1990s saw Indian movies outside its orbit, with organizers looking towards west for petty commercial reasons, Korchagov said. But see a change has taken place over the past few years with the nation's movie elite realizing the Russians' yen to watch more of the good old Indian films, he said.

Santham's entry in the competition category, which does not have a single Russian film in it, is a sufficient indication of Indian films recovering some lost ground at the Moscow festival, said Korchagov.

The opening of the competition with the screening of Santham on the first day of the festival, which opened Thursday, is yet another proud moment for India. Though the producer and director of the movie, Jayraj, had to cancel his trip to Moscow at the last moment owing to ill health, his mother is in the Russian capital on his behalf.

Sima Biswas, who has played the lead role in the movie, along with Lalitha Bharatan and Ramu, is also among the guests at the Moscow festival. In the absence of Indian movie celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakravarty and Shah Rukh Khan who are immensely popular there, the local Indian film fans would have to remain content with Sima Biswas and Lalitha Bharatan.

Russian film lovers, however, regret that there is no Bollywood movie with cheerful songs and colorful dances -- that the local people like very much -- in the festival, which has a 200-strong non-competitive section.

Founded in 1959, the Moscow International Film Festival was a biannual event until it was turned into an annual affair in 1999 with government support once again forthcoming.

President Vladimir Putin has pledged his support to the festival and the organizers are making a bid to push it up into the big league.