Rear View is an easy, free-flowing narrative which might initially make the viewer impatient, but give it just some more time and you’ll be rewarded. Filmmakers have tried time and again to show a conversation between strangers during a car ride in a poignant manner. While some succeed at it, others not so much. This short film definitely falls in the first category for the simple reason that it does not try hard to be anything else than what it is - a conversation between two people, confined by the start and end of a cab ride. While a busy professional is headed to catch a flight for a work trip, his driver soon receives a call to find out that his pregnant wife just went into premature labour. The story is not a new one, even the manner in which it’s told is not unique. Yet, the innocence and the honesty of the narrative ring deep and true with the viewer, and become the greatest strength of the film in the process.

Rear View | Short Film of the Day

From pregnancy and breast cancer, to conventional notions of feminine beauty, old age and the fight of a transgender to embrace her identity - this Titan Raga ad film manages to touch all of these topics and more. Be it the bruised fingers of a sitar player or the twisted feet of a ballerina, it draws attention to women from all walks of life and how they wear their struggle as a badge of honour and pride. The fact that it manages to achieve this despite its short length is another commendable aspect of the film. While several films attempt to talk about gender and feminism, few hit the mark as close as this one.

#FlauntYourFlaw | Short Film of the Day

Had a long day? Too much on your plate or mind? Looking to calm the voices within? Perhaps Play could be the song for you. Shot in the beautiful locations of Kannur, Kerala, it shows a young woman taking a train ride to meet her grandfather. Released as musician Mali's first single, the song has a calmness that would ring deep and true with the viewer and the listener long after it's over. When the strumming of an acoustic guitar is coupled with the visuals of the sea indeed there is little that can go wrong.

Mali - Play | Short Film of the Day

The music video juxtaposes the highs and lows of love for a couple which is drowning in the intensity of its own emotions. With the magical vocals of Prateek Kuhad, the song becomes a very poignant take on romance which is fierce, passionate and sometimes, heartbreaking. Following in the footsteps of many artists before him, a recent example being that of Ed Sheeran, Kuhad also makes a cameo in the video. With the depiction of the cyclical nature of relationships, Cold/Mess makes the viewer conclude that though love can be overwhelming, suffocating and bitter, it's also tangy and sweet and something worth a try, much like a lemon tart.

Cold/Mess | Short Film of the Day

This short film invokes a very serious concern which is not spoken about as much as it should be. With its engagement with child sexual abuse, Udne Do attempts to educate its audience about how to talk to children about good touch and bad touch. Additionally, it earns brownie points for the manner in which it portrays autism. The film introduces an autistic child who also plays a pivotal role in the plot. Yet it's not his disorder which becomes the focus of the narrative. If nothing at all, the film will at least leave the viewers with a better understanding of a particular form of abuse and how to prepare children to protect themselves against it, along with a much needed normalisation of autism and those who live with it.

Udne Do | Short Film of the Day

Sisak is a conversation that is marked by its complete absence of dialogue. It is constituted by tight shots of empty compartments, a loosely clenched fist, of crisp formal button-downs contrasted against patterned kurtas, kolhapuris against polished, grim shoes, dark against light, of silence and all that it conveys, and so much more. The film also does a notable job of tricking the viewer into reflecting upon their own gendered conditioning, to allow a particular kind of kolhapuri, a polka-dotted kurta, and an ornate ring to be a suggestion of femininity, only to then be surprised when its bearer is revealed to be a young man. And yet, that is not all Sisak is about.


 It portrays for you the power of a single exchanged glance, the lastingness of it, despite and because of the complete absence of any words. Any conversation that comes to take place is thus simply confined to stolen glances. <h2>There is further an interaction with the poignance of longing, alongside the fragility of the self and the vulnerabilities that constitute it when it is exposed for another person. The hesitation and attraction the film deals with serve another purpose, one of normalizing queer identities. </h2>

The attraction Sisak engages with is not limited to the characters' gender identities but is simply one that exists between two people. Yet there is a rejection, a denial, even if first in the heads of the characters themselves before it actually takes the form of action. <h2>This, in turn, serves as a disconcerting reminder of the world we inhabit, one which does not allow any kind of questioning of its heteronormative structures, and it is in this moment, this realization between the sentiment of love and the restrictive society it exists in, that the film becomes all that we need art to be - questioning the predominant societal structures that refuse to budge in their rigidity. </h2>


The narrative takes its time coming into its own, but never leaves the viewer distracted for a single moment. The absence of dialogues is easy to get used to for emotions and gestures are sufficient to take their place - from hesitation to nervousness, to pain, to love. The chemistry between its only two characters is palpable despite the physical distance between them. It is in the unfurling of a finger, in a single step taken towards each other, and most importantly, it is in the waiting. The background score towards the end falls a little out of synchronization with the rest of the narrative which has been marked by its subtleness all along. The track borders on sentimentalism, perhaps one that has been intentionally introduced in the hope of building up the crescendo for the viewer, but it might not always work for all of them.

Sisak | Short Film of the Day

This short film, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and directed by Nandita Das, works as the perfect prelude to the full-length feature film Manto soon to make an appearance on the silver screen. Nawazuddin is as convincing as Manto in the film as he has been in all of his prior roles. The film is a deep and insightful commentary on society which attempts to hide its vulgarities and inherent contradictions by attacking the artist who simply holds a mirror to it. It's not the art which is ugly, but the reflection of the critic who attacks the former with misguided rage. If nothing at all, In Defence of Freedom, handled extremely elegantly by Das, simply succeeds in compelling the viewer to start a conversation with the self and its location in society.

In Defence Of Freedom | Short Film of the Day

The metaphor of sound and its related processes - hearing, communicating, listening, comprehending and accepting - all of them together constitute the central metaphor of the narrative. The absence of these processes, the act of being able to hear each other, presents to the viewer the story of Vijay and his family. His father lives with a disability, thereby leaving the onus of fending for the family on his wife and the eldest son. 

Vijay’s younger brother, Varun, has withdrawn into his own little world, away from the many tribulations that his mother and sibling deal with on a daily basis. Vijay too leads a double life his family has no idea about. The narrative weaves all these elements together seamlessly, offering a poignant story of a broken household where each character inhabits their own realm. The performances further bolster this reality, as does the writing. 
 
Vijay’s vulnerabilities, hopes, and dreams, as well as his mother’s quiet suffering, alongside his father’s rage at an existence that has confined him to a life of immobility, are all shared in a skilled manner. The film loosens a little towards the conclusion, especially after presenting a potentially powerful climax, but that’s a wrinkle that can be overlooked in favor of everything else the plot offers.

Vakh Vakh Sansaar | Short Film of the Day

The short film is a calm conversation with grief, longing, heartache and the inexorable passage of time. Based on a short story by Madhumita Dasgupta, it opens on the first death anniversary of a man who is survived by his daughter, living by herself in their house. The narrative progresses to reveal her own struggles and internal obstacles left in the wake of her father's death. The story engages with several aspects of life that range from relationships to the hard, practical realities of life. Its storytelling is further supplemented by a poetic narration by Naseeruddin Shah, moving in and out of the film most organically and smoothly. The film exhibits a sophisticated tying together of visuals that enable it to communicate what it had set out to successfully. While we may forever endeavour to compartmentalise our feelings and rationalise the various events of life, there are indeed some vagaries that transcend all of these categories, underlines the film with its quiet conclusion.

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