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

Yours Truly is a film that finds itself thrust under the genre of romance, as its 57-year-old
protagonist Mithi Kumar (Soni Razdan) quietly pines after a man she’s only ever heard, but never
seen. She hears his voice over the station speakers every day on her long commute to work, and
over the years, develops an ineffable connection and attraction to this invisible “announcer”. She
regularly writes him unreserved and intimate letters where she pours out as much of her heart as
she does of the deep, reflective musings about the world. She imagines him addressing her personally over
the speakers - teasing, chastising, and guiding her through her day-to-day activities. However, the
station announcer never writes her back, and his private messages in her fantasies are never
recreated in his public messages over the station’s speakers. 

<h2>The film only fits in the romance genre
by how prominently Mithi’s life lacks it. </h2>

The opening scene shows Mithi lying motionless in bed, as a train rushes by loudly outside her
window. This is a predecessor for much of the film to come – the world moves along at a pace not in
sync with Mithi’s, while she remains stagnant, shielded under her gauzy mosquito nets, quiet teas
with biscuits, lonely train rides, and long nights of listening to her loud neighbours in bed while
craving the touch of her faceless man. It is an empathetic exploration of loneliness – a loneliness that

clearly weighs heavily on the protagonist – but a weight she doesn’t seem to mind. 

 She makes no
effort to rectify her isolation. She refuses to reciprocate her tenant, Vijay’s (Pankaj Tripathi),
forthcoming behaviour and attempts at conversation; she doesn’t try to seek out and meet the
“announcer” during the many years of being infatuated with him; she doesn’t seem to own a
television set or laptop; even after her vivacious younger sister, Lali (Aahana Kumra), presents her
with a new phone, Mithi doesn’t feel the need to use it to relieve the loneliness of her long, daily
commute on the train and ferry, where everyone around her is mindlessly scrolling through their
phones or listening to music to pass the time. 

<h2>Mithi seems to be living in a hangover from a fantasy world that she wishes existed – a world that is
not obsessed with gadgets, where a woman doesn’t have to be alienated in her workplace from all
her male colleagues, and where love letters are not only written, but also reciprocated. </h2>

There is a scene in the film where Mithi looks on at a dead body being transported on the train. As a
jolt displaces the sheet covering the body, revealing the corpse’s face, Mithi immediately gets up to
cover the body with her newly purchased quilt – an act of pure kindness, if it hadn’t been for the
look of paralysing fear in Mithi’s eyes when staring at the corpse’s face. It is unclear whether she
struggles to sleep that night because of being exposed to the cold without a quilt, or because of the
memory of why she doesn’t have one in the first place. 

Perhaps she’s afraid of how the dead body symbolises her future; perhaps she’s even more afraid of
how the scene resembles her present. Whether it be familiarity, or fear of 
the future, the emotion in Mithi’s eyes when she looks at the corpse is one perhaps also reflected in the viewer as we
watch Mithi’s life, love, and loneliness unfold in all its comfortable silences and disconcerting
mundanity on-screen.

 
Written by Sanjana Bhagwat

Yours Truly | Soni Razdan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aahana Kumra | Review

There are days when life is doleful and unsatisfying and there is indeed nothing that can lift your spirits. On days like those, take refuge in art, particularly in a product like Yesterday and allow it to uplift you like nothing else. This wonderfully written short film, shot in the most beautiful manner, will remind you that the pain of yesterday is precisely where it belongs - in the past. It will take you deep into the realms of attraction, love, heartbreak, separation, hurt and to love again, because what else can we be sure of if not the cyclical nature of life? The short film will involve you to the point where the boundaries between the self and the characters will blur. You will be with them during their highs and lows and at the end of it all, find yourself smiling again. The film will leave you with hope - to either treat it with carelessness or to hold on to it safely for a rainy day.

Yesterday | Short Film of the Day

First person documentaries are usually a reflection of the director's idiosyncrasies. They blur the lens
between the observer and the creator. While a third-person documentary would document and let the
camera tell a story, a first person narrative reminds you that you are seeing the film from the
director's perspective. 
<h2>About Love, the latter of the two, is a sincerely heartwarming film that flows like a breeze from start to finish. There is
never a dull moment in a narrative that captures a regular Marathi Brahmin family in their
daily lives. Director Archana Phadke has documented her family in the lead up to her
brother's wedding, trying to explore love in its mundane, overlooked, day-to-day form. </h2>

Love in a family is often never expressed through words, but conveyed through actions.
The mother takes care of the father's eccentricities. The grandmother, who has been married to
her husband for decades, quips that she follows him around all day for the 'sake of humanity'.
The grandchildren irritate the grandfather for fun, but also take care of his medicines. 
The film documents a family which is dysfunctional, but bound together in a sort of permanence
that only a family allows. Couples firmly believe in "until death do us part". While siblings
banter, the grandparents hurl abuses at each other constantly. <h2>Through all the
nagging, bickering and dad-jokes that land extremely well, a story about love is
documented through the eyes of the director.</h2>
Phadke has a background in filmmaking which is probably why she chose the medium for its intimate nature. Her
filmmaking abilities keep this film smooth, with well-framed shots and the house taking
up a life of itself.The residence has been around since 1901, we are told. A shot composed
of the grandmother, mother and the director herself with the camera standing on three different floors, one
above the other, conveys that the story is not simply confined to a single generation. 
The film is at its most subtle and mesmerising when it draws the character portraits of
the mother and the grandmother. The mother wears a smile on her face and lifts the house on
her shoulders. She yearns for two things - peace of mind and to be able to write, both of which
continue to evade her. She longs for comfort and recognition as she reads excerpts from her stories, always willing to explain her motifs and themes. She plans to write about love, about 'two
women separated by time' and comments on the nature of the relationship of Radha and
Krishna. 
The grandmother is from a different time. As she grows old, she becomes one with the house,
alone in a structure too big for her. She clings to memories from her past as her children and
grandchildren grow up and move on. 
There is a discussion on misogyny to be had, and the nature of love that women learn to give in to
marriage. Both the women form a real life tragedy that everyone is familiar with, all the while
maintaining the beauty of everyday relatability and light-heartedness. With its jovial quips as
well as deep conversations, About Love becomes a film that stays and deeply affects the viewer. 
Written by Nimish K Sharma

About Love | Review | Archana Atul Phadke

Trigger Warning: Graphic Content 

The film is a poignant and inspiring narrative about an organisation that rescues animals in the Indian city of Raipur. It takes the viewer into the lives of the founder and her small, but dedicated team who works tirelessly and relentlessly, even in the face of all obstacles, be it financial, societal (linked to the gender of the volunteers, for instance) or beyond. The documentary is deeply moving, heartwarming, emotional, endearing and impactful, all in equal measure. What started as an unexpected set of events when the founder, dressed in her finery and about to head to a social gathering, found an injured dog on a street, has now become a force to be reckoned with. Inherent to the core of the film is the message of kindness and doing your bit, despite hurdles like limited resources, unawareness, ignorance or just plain indifference of those around you, and the sacrifices that such an endeavour often demands. The film undeniably has a very powerful story to share, one that should be spread far and wide, for the betterment of the world we live in. All of this is further tied up with technical skill to make the narrative even more impactful. Vaatika is marked by its beautiful visuals (though some of them would be too graphic for sensitive viewers), seamless editing, crispness of narrative, eloquent interviewees and the deep, sincere desire to create something meaningful.

Vaatika | Short Film Nominee

It's the little moments that make up life as well as a good short film. Katran, a glimpse into these seemingly unimportant moments, is the story of an elderly couple which has decided to part ways after three decades of marriage. The chemistry between Piyush Mishra and Alka Amin beautifully captures the conflict and makes it the strongest aspect of the narrative. The protagonists are supported most efficiently by the other characters in the film which make brief, but not any less significant appearances. As the story progresses, it becomes clear to the viewer that separation indeed is the most peaceful and ideal solution for the couple. However is that the path they will also eventually choose to move ahead?

Katran | Piyush Mishra | Short Film of the Day

The soulful music is backed by the most heartwarming visuals in this video. It's simple and straight and does not try to be anything it's not which is perhaps what makes it a successful product, hitting just the right chords with the viewer. It's a wonderful comment on how society marginalises everything that it doesn't understand, no matter how baseless its fears and apprehensions might be. It also shows that the warmth of love is sufficient to melt all barriers, irrespective of how strong they might be. The video employs an expert use of limited space and frames to tell its story. Not only is the manner of storytelling convincing, but it also succeeds in making Sage a wholesome piece of art.

Ritviz - Sage | Short Film of the Day

Looking back on Valentine's Day over the years, you realise we have celebrated singlehood, female companionships, pets, so on and so forth. Just when you thought there's nothing new that can be added to the list, a short film arrived with the most relevant and wonderful message. This V-Day, let's celebrate women who make the first move. Making a strong comment on gender dynamics, Old Fashioned Love, is about a conversation between a bartender and a man sketching by himself. The first reaction for many viewers can be of surprise - to see a woman behind the bar in India, and that is perhaps another comment that the film makes. The conversation between them is intelligently written. The narrative is simple and engaging and concludes with a powerful ending.

Old Fashioned Love | Short Film of the Day

A common thread for all successful romance stories are the nuances and subtleties that are employed in telling them. Among its other strengths, this is the first thing Kaande Pohe captures most effortlessly. Add to it convincing performances and chemistry, and there is little that can go wrong. The scene is set for a meeting between two families for the arranged marriage of their children. This in itself is not an entirely unique subject matter for a short film. However, when the film manages to still tell its story in a completely new fashion, it deserves all the brownie points. It is further a comment on the deep infestation of technology, smartphones and social media in every aspect of our lives. 
 While the previous generation, or as the internet would call them, "boomers", fail to understand the charm of these modern values, seemingly in direct contrast with the sanskaar that is expected of a young woman preparing to get married, the millennials have decided to sink their heels deep into the ground, refusing to budge. With its lovely colour palettes, calm storytelling and honesty in building the narrative, the film is the warm fuzzies you need this Valentine's Week.

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