There is nothing in the world that can prepare one for the brilliantly disturbing allure of Aamis,
except for reviews that are never quite sure how much of the plot they should discuss. It is a
futile exercise, and one that can take away from the experience, especially for a film that
provides so much thematic meat to devour that makes film theorists salivating in the theatre a common sight. No
one reads M Night Shyamalan films’ reviews for the plot or the premise, they read them to see if
it works. And Aamis works like a charm. 

It follows Nirmali (Lima Das), a married paediatrician stuck in the lonely monotony of her daily life
with a husband who is more often away than in town, and a young PhD student Sumon (Arghadeep Baruah) who is an unusual food enthusiast (his research paper is on meat eating
habits of North-East India). Meat plays a bigger role in the film than one would think. In fact, the
two people bond over their love for unusual meat dishes, and they are more enamoured than in
love at the beginning. Nirmali is taken by Sumon’s youthful passion for life, he falls for her
grace and kindness. 

<h2>Illicit love has always been a taboo in Indian films, and surely, Aamis explores it at its purest.
Bhaskar Hazarika deprives his lovers of the sensuality of touch. </h2> He takes the physicality of a
relationship out of the picture and replaces it with love flowing with sexual undercurrents. It
allows for parallels to classic tales of love, those of Heer and Ranjha, Shirin and Farhad. Perhaps their
embraces felt so euphoric to them because they spent years fantasizing for a simple touch.

 
Das is mesmerising as a conflicted woman, constantly aware of the guilt and taboo of her
situation. She is sensual, gracious and deprived, at the same point, of time. Baruah’s constant
cluelessness works for the character of a hopeless lover, who is hell-bent on doing anything to
please his lover. However, their love is an unhealthy transaction, much like the many love stories of the legends. 
 
Hazarika explores the ebbs and flows of their growing love in a nuanced manner. The
audience barely realises when the story takes a dark turn - where it hits the point of no return. By then the story is too likeable to look away. 

The wonderful thematic elements of the first half lead to the dark absurdity of the second. There
is a postmodernist twist on everything that is established, and a brilliant movement of the narrative makes the film
ripe for analysis and multiple viewings. <h2> The characters quietly go insane together, crumbling
under the pressure of society, under the guilt that renders their relationship illicit. By the time it
ends, one can only look back and wonder how they got there. Yet everything makes sense. </h2>
The cinematography is experimental, and partakes of the gluttony of the couple as well as their
fantasies. The editing is euphoric, often piecing together linear and the fantastical with the same
thread, being completely subservient to the whims of the script. The colour red is used
sparingly in the beginning, while it grows and grows until it takes over in the latter half.
The experience itself is one of abject horror and curiosity combined. Ultimately the film
becomes a cautionary tale too - a parable of the things people can do for love. It might also just
be the greatest PETA ad ever made. 
Written by Nimish K Sharma

Aamis (Ravening) | Anurag Kashyap | Review

When it comes to storytelling, especially with the aid of a medium like a short film, it helps to focus on less than more. What it essentially means is that sometimes a sincere portrayal of a single moment, in the case of ‘Wing One's Way’ - a single conversation within the confines of the same room, is sufficient to make the story work.

The film achieves precisely this by taking us into a girl's dilemma who is mulling over coming out, and everything that would follow thereafter. There is something notably lovely and effortless about the two actors and their chemistry. This also marks the most pronounced aspect of the film - all the effort that has gone into making it look effortless and simple. The success of a story that is told devoid of any frills and bells, and with a consistent mellow approach to its many aspects, therefore becomes unmissable.

Wing One's Way...| Short Film of the Day

Smritir Pak, or Maze of Memory, is precisely that, an engagement with the past, time and memory. As a boy sits in his room, the story follows a non-linear trajectory to take the viewer down the same memory line as the protagonist. He revisits his childhood, and also the fantasies and imaginary friends he took comfort in to cope with it. While the symbols of childhood still exist (a red balloon, the memory of a friend who perhaps never existed), their meaning have completely changed. From climbing trees and running in fields, to strumming a guitar in the confines of a room - the protagonist has covered a long journey. The narrative is weaved with a sense of melancholy that never truly leaves the viewer. There is further a sense of the forward movement of life, but one which is never devoid of the past it always carries with it.

Smritir Pak | Short Film Nominee

The music video, Panixiya, opens with a young woman, dressed in the traditional Assamese attire of sador-mekhela, peacefully gazing at a fish in a big bowl of water. She moves inside her mud house and transfers the fish to a smaller bucket. The bucket and its companion travel to calm waters, through the green lands and village roads as a woeful voice sings in the background. The sad, rhythmic melody talks of a pained life, one constituted by umpteen mistakes, distant relationships and unfulfilled emotions. 

Through the notable vocals, tied effortlessly with the visuals unfolding before you, the narrative endeavors a story about existence and its relationship with the human soul, the many struggles that confine and threaten to consume it and its relentless efforts to push through, even when all seems lost and overwhelmed by despair. With no direct translation in the English language, the title of the film thus becomes an evocation of a philosophy which views the fish as our mortal coil swimming in the endless, unpredictable, unknown waters of existence.

Panixiya | Short Film of the Day

When the film opens, we see a group of children playing with each other. The endearing image is soon overshadowed by a sense of unease that is introduced into the narrative. The viewer perceives it first before they identify the source of it. A man watches the children from afar, looking a little too intent for the audience's comfort. Unaware of a vile aspect of the adult world unfolding parallel to their carefree game, the children continue to run and scamper around. The film soon offers a jarring image, one that suddenly transforms an innocent childhood activity into one of violence and cruelty, making it amply clear for the viewer about the rest of the narrative's course. Hide and Seek is shot wonderfully with smooth camerawork and editing. It presents forth a premise, but not a conclusion, and leaves you with and at a moment of high tension.

Hide and Seek | Short Film Nominee

The music video presents to us a lovely reality of two endearing characters (and actors). A young couple enjoys the rain, recording and capturing the falling drops on their camera. A world of laughter, cheer and love is thus invoked and documented on the lens. However, before the viewer becomes too comfortable with this reality, it is cut short by tragedy, death and loss, with only the memories of a happier time left behind in their wake. It is by juxtaposing the two scenarios, all along tied with lyrical vocals, that the core motivations are presented thus to the viewer, asserting that the bonds of love sometimes even transcend death.

Borokha Namile | Short Film Nominee

Borokha is a sweet, but resilient girl who works in a small handloom set-up. She wishes to find a better
job so that she can provide better schooling for her brother, Chandan and also raise her standard of
living. One day, her friend, Manab, who has started working in the city, advises her to start her own
small business of crafting jewellery that he would help her sell in the city. With help from a kind
neighbour, Borokha embarks upon her journey. 
The actor playing Borokha is pleasant and likeable and the viewer is rooting for her to succeed. The film
also keeps the pace slow and lulled which makes it seem more organic to the setting of the story.
However, after building up these expectations, the climax takes a turn which completely shatters the
investment the viewer had built with the film.

Aakha | Short Film Nominee

The thematic preoccupation of the narrative is something small and mundane, and yet, for the characters involved, it is an issue of extreme importance. That perhaps is how life is constituted too, by small moments that may seem trivial in the larger scheme of things, but it is precisely these moments that come to define and comprise our lived reality. The narrative locates itself in a rural pocket of the country where, one day, some catfish is captured for food by a man and shared with those around him. However, the activity is not as simple as it sounds, and soon becomes a topic of great discussion as well as derision by the rest of the community. The film offers a convincing and authentic glimpse into the daily affairs of the village, and the several social equations within which they come to take form. The storytelling exhibits potential, even though the cinematography could have gained from a little more stability in the visuals. Overall, however, the film remains a notable attempt at sharing its story and intentions with the audience.

The Catfish | Short Film Nominee

‘Nila Sola’ (Blue Shirt) takes us into the life of Vinod and Prastuti, a married couple who is content and happy with each other. However, one day tragedy strikes in the form of Prastuti’s inability to bear children. This further causes complications with her and Vinod’s relationship with his mother. 

In a world where inordinate amounts of pressure is thrust upon women and their role as mothers, Prastuti truly finds herself drowning in sorrow, more so because of what she views as the plight of her husband. Believing that she has deprived him of an important joy of life, she decides to go down a path from where there is no turning back. The film portrays all of this for the viewer, eventually concluding with a scene that communicates much more with silence than dialogue, and perhaps ties it all together with a suggestion of possibilities awaiting right at the horizon.

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