The scene is of a dark night when a man is in a hurry to get to his native village which he left a decade ago. The reason for the rushed trip, making him drive into the lateness of the hour, is to sell an ancestral property. After finally having secured a buyer, this is perhaps a narrow window to get the property off his hands, explaining the urgency to get there in time. Now that the premise of the film is in place, it allows itself to play with darkness, concealing more than it reveals, using shadows and sounds to conjure an eerie atmosphere for the viewer. It's biggest tool to invoke an element of horror is simply a voice, an unhappy, enraged voice, and owing to the manner in which the narrative is weaved, that turns out to be more than sufficient.

Navigator | Short Film of the Day

Yamini, a paranormal investigator, has arrived at an abandoned, old house, seeking the potential supernatural entities that might inhabit the space. Searching out these stories as part of her profession, she is definitely better equipped to deal with whatever is in store for her than an average person. Yamini's life is further constituted by a loving relationship and equally supportive friends. 

The message that is primary to the plot is one about the darkness within and how it can serve as the perfect raw material for all the darkness without. We soon see the truth of this proposition in the events that follow and the manner in which an internal darkness comes to grip Yamini. 
The atmosphere of eeriness that ‘Goonj’ conjures for the viewer is sure to stay with them after they are done watching the film. Even though towards the end the narrative loses a little bit of its tautness, the manner in which the world of the film and the story are built remains notable.

Goonj | Short Film Nominee

The film is tightly controlled in its brevity, as well as the use of a limited physical space. It turns the two to its advantage to tell a story that is a complete whole. A man, an artist, sketches by himself late into the night when a sudden power cut halts his work. In an attempt to light a candle, he stumbles across the most strange phenomenon - a matchstick that refuses to burn out and perish. 
The strangeness of the occurrence continues to build until it reaches a terrible development within the story. All of this is portrayed by way of a black-and-white visual palette, devoid of any dialogue, as the myriad elements are judiciously used to conjure shadows and the sinister intentions they harbor within.

The Matchstick | Short Film Nominee

A man is riding a two-wheeler late into the night when the most unexpected set of developments begin to unfold before him. In the middle of nowhere, as if a stark, pale dot in the darkness, a man stands dressed in only a hospital robe. He asks for lift from our unsuspecting protagonist, who though wary and a little disturbed, agrees to help. The film then employs a little bit of jump scares, a little bit of the play of light in the dark, to bring to life its intentions. As the events continue to develop, will our protagonist truly see the end of this journey and reach his destination unscathed?

The Lift | Short Film Nominee

The seemingly single-take narrative takes us into a conversation between two characters. It is a mundane night when a man is on his way home from work. On the phone with a woman, he discusses his day with her, and we are taken deeper into both of their lives. Soon, terrible events begin to develop, revealing that the woman is now in the way of some great peril. As we listen to her panicky voice alongside the protagonist, little seems to be possible to help her in this dire circumstance. The short film is based on a story by Pascal Chatterjee titled ‘Annie96 is typing…’. Though not the first endeavor to model itself on the story, ‘The Call’ brings its own unique voice to weave the narrative, and portray all that constitutes it.

The Call | Short Film Nominee

The film, primarily a solo project, introduces the viewer to the experiences of its protagonist one night. Stuck at his workplace into late hours, when instead he would have rather been watching a film with his friends, he is surrounded by strange knocks and shadows. However, soon the grimness of the hour is forgotten as a box is left for him outside the door. Inside he finds a gadget he is most taken by, but little does he realise that it would be precisely this unexpected present that would be his undoing. The film endeavours to create an atmosphere of uncertainty, thrill and horror and remains consistent in its effort at achieving this from beginning to end.

Surprise Gift | Short Film Nominee

The story is of one night and two men who share the same house. After wrapping up a regular day at work, they return home and make their own respective phone calls. Alongside the troubles that plague them, there is also a sense of unease and irritability that is shared between them. 

The plot of 'Iravin Paravaigal' (Birds of the Night) moves forward to further tie it with a sense of horror, fears, darkness and everything that lurks in shadows and nightmares. It is in this movement of the story that all its intentions are attempted to be dealt with. Albeit showing the want of a little lucidity, it eventually concludes with a suggestion of hope and a new understanding that the two characters now find entwined in their equation.

Iravin Paravaigal | Short Film Nominee

Somewhere between light and dark, memory and remembrance, and nightmares and dreams, lies a space which is undefined and uncertain. It is marked by a constant tussle between doubts and surety, truth and illusion, and it is in this territory that the film locates itself. It becomes a story of a man's attempts to make sense of his reality which is oscillating between wakefulness and unconsciousness. Staying consistent with its approach, even the manner in which the story unfolds is like that of a documentary, but one which exists within the fictive space. The film exhibits a desire to engage with a complex subject, drawing in ideas of surrealism and the dubious nature of what we deem to be our reality. The execution of the story is marked by a near-complete absence of a background score which could have perhaps been altered with the presence of some more music to add an extra layer to the story.

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