Poignant, subtle and nuanced - three words that describe this short film. Written and directed by Vivek Mushran, Morning Majnu is an interesting take on the entitlement and fearlessness of a man in a position of power. It's a usual morning in an average Indian household where a domestic help goes about her daily chores. However, the master of the house is an insufferable lech who deliberately drops tea on the floor to get her to position her body that allows him a better opportunity to ogle at her. One thing that he does not foresee is an object as inane as a radio becoming an agent of retribution. The short film has an interesting take on sexism and sexual harassment, and therefore becomes even more relevant in a world where conversation around sexual harassment is becoming louder every day.

Morning Majnu | Short Film of the Day

Malota is unique and refreshing in the manner in which it tells its story. While the adults struggle with practical concerns of sustenance and survival, the world of children has very different issues to deal with. When the birth of puppies throws young Gulaab's plans to finish his homework, the fear of a ruthless teacher's thrashing leads him to bunk school. What he learns outside the institutionalised centre of learning is perhaps more likely to stay with him than the table of 12.75. The film pays close attention to detail and is endearing and profound in equal measure.

Malota | Short Film of the Day

How does a couple find a quiet, intimate corner in a city like Mumbai? The short film is a quest for the same answer through the life of a newly married couple that shares the same house as half a dozen other family members. The walls are absent or thin enough to ensure there is no privacy to be found at home, the beach is too public a place, the hotels would not work without a marriage certificate. However, amidst all the activity and hustle-bustle, sometimes an embrace is the most intimate and vulnerable experience shared between two people.

The Embrace | Short Film of the Day

The short film opens with a beautifully poignant poem that will stay with you for a long time. It takes you into the life of a housewife who wants to get her poems published with the help of her husband who works in a publishing house. For a film that starts on such a lovely note, it sure catches the viewer unaware with the dark turn the story suddenly takes. Above everything, Chupchaap is a film about how men who have the power to help women often force them into silence because of their own skewed ideologies. Thus, it compels the viewer to ponder upon the isolation of women in a world where they are not only deprived of a space of support and protection, but are often also blamed for misdeeds committed by others.

Chupchaap | Short Film of the Day

Several stories in media and cinema have endeavored to portray Mumbai and everything that it harbors within its many folds. Welcome to Mumbai is one such attempt that makes a protagonist out of the city itself when it's viewed from the point of view of an outsider. The duration of the film, at the same time, becomes the trajectory of his journey from being an outsider to one of Mumbai's own. 

 Lallan, a wide-eyed, gullible man from Uttar Pradesh, finds himself making his way into the city of dreams. On his first day itself, he is delegated an important errand, one that also gives us the MacGuffin of the plot - a bag that has to be delivered to someone seemingly important. When Lallan arrives to deliver the parcel, a delay causes him to wander around to kill time, and thus begins a set of misadventures he is not prepared for. 

 As the narrative moves back and forth and shares his experiences of the day, it invokes all the quintessential elements of the city - from local trains to free advice from strangers to a rocky seaside to the infamous lack of time and its constant mention in conversations. However, naive, unsuspecting Lallan, who has just begun to step out of his native state, finds himself on terribly shaky grounds. As his innocence soon turns to paranoia and cynicism, the film finally reveals its cards, but will the revelation be for better or worse?

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