India is just beginning to engage with several aspects of gender and sexuality, and what better way to encourage the conversation than art. This short film, a Myntra creation as part of its Bold is Beautiful campaign, attempts precisely that. <br><br> Pretty frames, talented actors and a smooth narrative is what The Visit offers. It also succeeds in the most graceful manner to convey its message about the importance of freedom to love who you want.

The Visit | Short Film of the Day

The short film opens with two friends sharing a drink; one is a more indulgent drinker, the other a bit wary, mostly for his friend's sake. Right at the start of the narrative, despite all the humour and jokes, there is a hint of a darker undertone. Remembering their past relationships, the two friends, played effortlessly by Satish Kaushik and Shishir Sharma, end up tussling on the floor over a phone. Immediately after, the tone of the scene changes from being lighthearted to one of secrecy, regrets and deep pain. <br> <br>When Tera Jaisa Yaar Kahan opens, it does not even remotely suggest the direction it's headed in. This indeed is one of the many highlights of this story of friendship, loss and the many forms of love.

Tere Jaisa Yaar Kahan | Short Film of the Day

The oppression of patriarchy spreads far beyond affecting any single gender, and often finds echoes in ideas of male sexuality itself. The short film foregrounds the same point through its engagement with homosexuality in rural India. It is powerful in this exploration and presents the viewer with a poignant narrative. <br><br> A boy grapples to ascertain his equation with his brute of a father who is cruel to him as well as his mother. Simultaneously, he finds comfort in a lover and best friend. However, since the relationship does not subscribe to a heteronormative idea of gender and sexuality, it is doomed to meet an ugly end. The film also attempts and succeeds at a moving portrayal of homosexuality in a small village where the monolithic idea of masculinity reigns free. <br><br> The visuals are further imbued with a gravity and stillness that serve to make the narrative deeper. The performances are notable as is the storytelling, enabling the film to successfully convey all that it had set out to at the start. 

Kohrra | Short Film of the Day

Sisak is a conversation that is marked by its complete absence of dialogue. It is constituted by tight shots of empty compartments, a loosely clenched fist, of crisp formal button-downs contrasted against patterned kurtas, kolhapuris against polished, grim shoes, dark against light, of silence and all that it conveys, and so much more. The film also does a notable job of tricking the viewer into reflecting upon their own gendered conditioning, to allow a particular kind of kolhapuri, a polka-dotted kurta, and an ornate ring to be a suggestion of femininity, only to then be surprised when its bearer is revealed to be a young man. And yet, that is not all Sisak is about.


 <br><br> It portrays for you the power of a single exchanged glance, the lastingness of it, despite and because of the complete absence of any words. Any conversation that comes to take place is thus simply confined to stolen glances. <h2>There is further an interaction with the poignance of longing, alongside the fragility of the self and the vulnerabilities that constitute it when it is exposed for another person. The hesitation and attraction the film deals with serve another purpose, one of normalizing queer identities. </h2>

The attraction Sisak engages with is not limited to the characters' gender identities but is simply one that exists between two people. Yet there is a rejection, a denial, even if first in the heads of the characters themselves before it actually takes the form of action. <h2>This, in turn, serves as a disconcerting reminder of the world we inhabit, one which does not allow any kind of questioning of its heteronormative structures, and it is in this moment, this realization between the sentiment of love and the restrictive society it exists in, that the film becomes all that we need art to be - questioning the predominant societal structures that refuse to budge in their rigidity. </h2>


The narrative takes its time coming into its own, but never leaves the viewer distracted for a single moment. The absence of dialogues is easy to get used to for emotions and gestures are sufficient to take their place - from hesitation to nervousness, to pain, to love. The chemistry between its only two characters is palpable despite the physical distance between them. It is in the unfurling of a finger, in a single step taken towards each other, and most importantly, it is in the waiting. The background score towards the end falls a little out of synchronization with the rest of the narrative which has been marked by its subtleness all along. The track borders on sentimentalism, perhaps one that has been intentionally introduced in the hope of building up the crescendo for the viewer, but it might not always work for all of them.


Sisak | Short Film of the Day

The story of Falana Dhimkana is of three different pairs of people and their individual struggles. The narrative is an exploration of the less significant moments of life, those which fall between the cracks of milestones and landmark achievements.  The style of the film adopts the most natural flow and offers a beautiful portrayal of several things - from union and partings to hardships and most universal of them all, pain. <br><br>The film comes across as a wise decision by the young filmmaker Prannoy Mehta to talk about concerns no grander than heartbreak, financial trouble and raw, honest intimacy between two people. All of this is gracefully weaved together with the stories of its characters, rendered convincingly by the actors. Falana Dhimkana is subtle, soft, and a reminder that irrespective of where we may be in life, pain finds us all in the end, but so does hope, happiness and joy.

Falana Dhimkana | Short Film of the Day

The entirety of the plot is a conversation between two siblings, as they scream out each other's secrets to their mother from the terrace of their house. The film ropes in humour and the relatability of a sibling conflict to share its story. What starts off from a pregnancy test, concludes with a piece of cloth marked by its rainbow colours, and the statement they inherently carry within. <br><br> As the shouting match continues, the secrets seem to be building up to something that would eventually come to alter the tone of the film in a permanent fashion. When it finally arrives, will the characters and the viewer be prepared for it? <br><br> Secret endeavours to do its bit to normalise queer identities without giving in to sentimentalism or cliches. It weaves its story in a direct manner, along with skilled camerawork and an honesty to storytelling and performance.

Secret | Short Film of the Day

The entirety of the narrative unfolds in the form of a recitation of a letter that a father is writing to his daughter. Gradually and organically, taking its time to come into its own, this narration reveals small, but integral details to the viewer. From a task as mundane as making the morning tea, to a father's disappointment at finding his daughter's room empty, the film uses seemingly inane characteristics of every day life to weave a poignant story. <br><br> As the letter develops, emotions of regret and guilt as a result of hasty decisions taken out of anger, surface and allow another layer and texture to the narrative. While being a story of societal pressures and shackles, of familial conflict and rebellion, the film concludes with a pertinent social message about acceptance and love, managing to involve and catch the audience by surprise in the process.

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