Harsh and Aditi are about to celebrate their three-year anniversary over the weekend. The film opens on this merry note, with a little discussion around sleep, setting up the plot, and how it is about to develop over the course of the week until the anniversary. When they stop to give a lift to a differently-abled man, the tone of the film begins to alter. 

The viewer is thus presented with an engaging, intriguing, and horrifying story about an urban legend called the Elevator Game, and how it leads to terrible consequences in people’s lives. The narrative invokes curiosity, and somnambulism, and plays on the idea of fear to enhance itself. 

The screenplay is constructed with care, even if the sound mixing and some aspects of the edit exhibit a little rawness. The final result is a narrative of horror, and the shadows and inexplicable things that lurk in the dark, establishing the first chapter of perhaps a longer story to come.

The Elevator Game | Short Film Nominee

The short film is the story of two sisters where the elder one takes care of her younger sibling who is in a wheelchair. As she struggles to keep up with her various responsibilities, she finds herself tempted to go down a dark path from where there is no return. The narrative introduces us to various moments of their affection and intimacy. This is done perhaps intentionally to achieve an element of shock at what follows. The manner in which events develop in the story is aimed to provide a jarring image in direct contrast to the earlier ones of love and sisterhood. While light and dark continue to wage a battle within the protagonist, who will be victorious at the end of it all?

Pratibimbo | Short Film Nominee

'Kashish' is a well-meaning conversation on domestic abuse and how it can extend beyond simply a physical manifestation, or fixed expectations that one might have of an abused-and-abuser-equation. It attempts the same by showing a doctor's procedure of conducting an autopsy on someone who took their life by suicide. As she unravels each layer, the plot is also gradually shared with the viewer. 

The film expresses its views, but also seems a little wary, as if hesitating in saying the whole truth. It should be noted, however, that at the conclusion there indeed exists one final endeavour of expressing its closing thoughts in a direct manner. It would be interesting to see the team explore the premise and this expression further, and share them thus with the viewer.

Kashish | Short Film Nominee

A mother and her son are located against a black backdrop of a world where hardly anything else exists beyond them, or an object or two of theirs. The narrative eventually progresses to reveal this to be a realm that lies between life and death, at the brink of some crucial decisions that would determine the final fate of the characters. The setting further acquires a theatrical quality, while evidencing the desire to share its story with sincerity. The plot strikes a conversation with the themes of redemption, guilt, existence, life and death, and the possibility of an eternity in Hell that lies on the other side of it all. Eventually, all of these aspects are then attempted to be tied with the complexity of the dynamic shared between the two characters.

The Last 40 Steps | Short Film Nominee

In the process of writing his next novel, a writer is hard at work at his desk. We see him stationed
before his writing, looking for ideas, struggling with words. In the middle of it all, he receives a text from someone, a link to a
YouTube video, with a strange warning to not watch it. Consequently, he is curious about it, and despite the warning, clicks on the link anyway. Soon follows a series of chain reactions. Since now the Pandora's box has been opened, strange clues begin to reveal themselves, leaving him more and more perplexed. The term ‘virtual
reality’ takes a whole new meaning, as both the viewer and the protagonist realise to their folly.

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