The short film is an engaging interaction with the ideas of identity and its expression, but viewed through the innocence of childhood. Ahead of his thirteenth birthday, a Sikh boy has a very particular gift he desires this year. However, he is fully aware that it will only be frowned upon and never allowed within his community. The rest of the narrative is a wonderful conversation with these intentions and all endeavours to realise them as reality. Without explicitly spelling out its premise, the film becomes an endearing portrayal of a child approaching and critiquing societal constructs. The camerawork is skilled, while not entirely seamless. The several elements of the story meld into each other to provide an end product that is heartwarming, despite the shock it invokes in the characters directly in contact with the situation at hand.

Mast Qalandar | Short Film Nominee

The film is sure to catch the viewer's attention in the most unexpected manner. It opens with a scene of an old man waking up and answering his door over a course of time, meeting different strangers. By his own admission, his memory is failing which is why he must click their picture and add it to his board with their name under it. One day, however, a young girl goes missing. She happens to be the daughter of someone important which is precisely why her absence matters, unlike that of so many innumerable missing people who were not significant enough to be looked for. The film too highlights this aspect, but does not dwell on it for too long because soon after awaits a more shocking revelation. Along with a strong story, the film also exhibits elegant camerawork and notable performances.

The Last Photograph | Short Film of the Day

'What got into us back then', laments one of the characters of Dhund, looking back at the Partition eleven years later. Much like other Shlok Sharma films, this one too questions the pointlessness of communal conflict and the ugly sides of the human nature it reveals. The short film by Sudeep Kanwal starts on a high and maintains the poignancy all through it's first half. However, in the second half, it dips to not recover again. Had the film been shorter and tauter, perhaps it would have sustained the depth it had set its horizon of expectation for. Despite its flaws, Dhund will leave you with a moving glimpse of a conflict that destroyed many lives, irrespective of the side of the border.

Dhund | 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 Month

Trigger warning: Based on true events, the short film is a jarring reminder of brutal sexual violence against young girls and women in India. The story is of a small town in Punjab where a boy lives with his younger sister. The narrative is handled maturely and does not give in to sentimentalism, voyeurism and excessive violence that films of this kind often fall prey to. Ayaana draws attention to how widespread rapes are in the country and how little is the punishment that is meted out to the perpetrators. Consequently, it serves to disturb the viewer and has the potential to spur them into action against this much prevalent form of sexual abuse and assault.

Ayaana | Short Film of the Day

The story begins with an intense moment where a man is unable to find his wife, Preet. Once the couple has been located in a rural corner of Punjab, the narrative then takes us into an urban household of two daughters. The elder child, Priya, is a dedicated student who deeply loves and respects her father and family. 

The patriarch of the household, though seemingly well-intentioned, maintains tight control over the women of the house. This is why when he discovers his daughter’s romantic equation with a classmate of hers, Samar, he is swift and rigid in the action he takes. The obedient Priya too tries her best to abide by it, until she reaches a point of no return, and elopes with him. 

The events begin to unfold in true earnest henceforth. We are presented with a plot that continues to thicken. There is engagement with violence, sexual assault, and a complete subversion of the reality the viewer is led to believe so far. The film’s biggest strength is its writing and plot construction which catches the viewer off guard with its most crucial revelations. 
 
The title of the film finds several pronunciations within the narrative, three times primarily, once at its opening, then as it moves past Priya’s elopement, and eventually at the climax. All of these developments are allowed an organic progression which, in turn, leads to the many components of the story to come into their own and keep the viewer invested in the fate of the characters throughout.

Talash | Short Film Nominee

The film opens on a light note, beguiling the true sentiment that would come to constitute its core. Despite its short duration, Kandh De Paar skilfully touches upon several things that include one's sense of identity, notions of idealism juxtaposed against those of realism, minority persecution as well as an internal ideological battle of the protagonist. Visually, the narrative aims to play with sound (perhaps suggesting a delicate handling of violence) and all that unfolds on screen (red shadows cast on characters, for instance). The beginning of the narrative is simply a chaotic Sikh household dealing with its daily bickering and confusion. However, it immediately progresses to reveal a far darker reality that simmers just below the surface, one of the persecution of the Sikhs in 1984 in the wake of the assassination of the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Both Taranjit Kaur and Guneet Singh Nanda bring the story to life with their notable performances and draw the viewer deep into it beyond the point of no return. It should be added that the film does indeed lose brownie points in the department of sound and certain camera angles which could gave gained with a little more polishing and sophistication. However, on the whole, it succeeds at presenting a moving portrayal of a gory and disturbing chapter of Indian history.

Kandh De Paar| Short Film of the Day

The short film aims to invoke a relevant comment on the various kinds of discrimination prevalent in society, in general, and the role caste has to play in this, in particular. It's approach is marked by brevity, an element that works in its favour. The scene is of a village where it seems two brothers are wrapping up work on their farm before moving on to the next task. Handheld shots remain dominant in the narrative, and are further tied with interesting editing to drive home the intensity of events that come to unfold. The film offers insight into the devastating effects of the inherent discrimination against a community and the consequent violence it often leads to. The idea is foregrounded in a significant manner by portraying how the situation in itself might have been a completely inane one, but its misinterpretation due to one's own vision coloured by bias, led to ruinous, irreversible results.

Stone Castle | Short Film Nominee

The film is about several things that include familial ties, bullying, loss of someone you love, poverty and the importance of education, among other things. It gives the audience an endearing protagonist called Aman whose father is a gardener. Due to an unnamed disease, he leaves his son in the care of his employers and disappears from the narrative thereafter after an emotional farewell. The film essentially becomes this boy's journey of experiencing grief, finding companionship in the plants that his father taught him to nurture, making friends out of foes and winning the world over with his kindness. The performance by Agamvir Singh shoulders the weight of the story most efficiently, also making it the most notable aspect of the film. The film, however, would have benefited better with the presence of an original background score and a little less sentimentalism.

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