Anjali Menon is an Indian film director and screenwriter who made her writing and directional debut with the feature film Manjadikuru, for which she got the FIPRESCI award for the Best Malayalam film and Best Indian Debut Her second feature film is Bangalore Days and she has written the critically and commercially acclaimed Ustad Hotel. She was born in Calicut, Kerala, India. A post-graduate in Communication Studies, from Pune University. Menon graduated from the London Film School in 2003, with distinction honours in editing, producing and directing film. Her graduation film Black Nor White, (credited as Anjali Nair), featuring Rez Kempton and Archie Panjabi with Asif Kapadia as Executive Producer was premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 1997, she started her career by directing documentaries, telefilms and program designing projects for television. In 2006 she started Little Films, a film production company in Mumbai. Manjadikuru happened to be her debut movie under this production company. She had to face a lot of difficulties in completing this movie, particularly because she is one of the rarest female directors of Malayalam. But the result was shown when she got the FIPRESCI award for the Best Malayalam film at 2008 International Film Festival of Kerala. Not only that, the following year 'Manchadi kuru' swept the awards at South Asian International Film Festival at New York, winning five Grand Jury Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer & Best Emerging Talent. With the National award winning script of Ustaad hotel, she has emerged as one of the powerful lady celebrities of Malayalam cinema, who works behind the screen. Anjali Menon is a National award winning script writer and director of Malayalam.