The short film, most subtle in its approach, with subdued sounds and a muted palette, makes a very powerful comment about marginalisation, gender and mother-daughter relationships. The protagonist of the film is a little girl narrating the story of her birth mother, adopted mother and now her journey to a boarding school. The sequencing of the visual narrative is very important in telling this story and is used judiciously by the filmmaker. The second most significant tool is the equally skilled voiceover of the protagonist that supplements the visuals most impactfully. Add to all of this the fact that the film tells a true story, and it becomes a very wholesome product that will ring true and deep with the viewer.

Generations of Care | Short Film of the Day

The narrative is concise, but powerful, simple, but coherent and clear in communicating its message. With a voiceover throughout, it is devoid of any other dialogue. Instead, it backs it with lovely visuals of colours and happiness of the festival of Holi. As a transgender woman gets ready in front of her mirror, she raises poignant questions about the location of her community in society. In essence, the film is direct and straight in putting forth what it intends to say - the need for a dialogue that invokes equality for all irrespective of their sexual identity and gender. As the woman completes her process of getting ready, she steps out to embrace the colours, smiles and all that the festival has to offer. The narrative concludes with the impactful image of her walking across the whirlwind of swirling colours into the possibility of a world that would, perhaps one day, finally cease to marginalise her.

Farq | Short Film of the Day

One of the most important goals of art is to bring reformative change, to eventually make this world a better place. Its aim is to strive for an inclusive society where people of all genders and sexual orientations are allowed to live freely and without fear. The documentary film is an important step in the same direction. 

It offers not only a lucid and comprehensive, but also poignant and sincere account of a transgender boy's struggle to come to terms with his identity. Born as Ritika, but now having chosen an existence for himself as Ritwik, the protagonist shares with the viewer his mental health struggles, past failures in romance and society's inability to make him feel comfortable with his decisions even after all these years. What began as a sense of deep discomfort in his clothes and skin as a child, and briefly also came to be viewed as a mental illness by his parents, has now become a powerful assertion of an identity in a world that is obsessed with forcing everything into its own rigid categories. The overarching message of the narrative remains loud and clear - one about every person's right to subscribe to the gender they want to and are most comfortable with. In the process, doing its bit to further the cause, Tamas offers a beautiful and intelligent portrayal of an issue which requires more conversation and dialogue around it in the mainstream.

Tamas: From Ritika to Ritwik | Short Film of the Day

The scene is of a moving bus where a little boy in a brightly coloured t-shirt is generously and deliberately spilling water over his stuffed mermaid. The same fate is in store for the basket of dead fish resting in the lap of a fisher-woman in the vehicle. The subtle act, though capable of incurring grave trouble for the unsuspecting child, is sufficient to establish his innocent kindness and warmth. The film takes its time coming into its own, gradually revealing pivotal details that would enable it to weave the narrative together into a well-balanced whole. Soon the tone and ambience changes to a darker, more grim one, making the viewer realise that something is deeply amiss in the fictive space of the film. It is by employing this unease that Chudail, titled ironically and loaded with a very pertinent message, puts forth its aim before the viewer. Further, it leaves them with a strong reminder of a deeply problematic aspect of our society - one about the location and marginalisation of the transgender identity.

Chudail | Short Film of the Day

The short film opens on an intriguing note where parallel stories seem to be unfolding. The narrative soon adopts a non-linear approach to reveal to the viewer its core concerns, the lived reality and experiences of a transgender woman, Rachel. The plot is notable in the manner in which it shows how society looks at someone who breaks out of heteronormativity, while also normalising transgender identities. Rachel's love life is allowed to develop alongside that of a traditional couple that is plagued by several complications in the form of the man's sexism and aggressiveness. A further engagement with the plot reveals another problem with Rachel's lover, and the rest of the film is about how they reconcile with it. When two people, after having been subjected to loneliness and isolation of their own respective kinds, find themselves first coming together then drifting apart, what will be the eventual outcome of their equation?

Transformers | Short Film Nominee

Shakuntala, the protagonist of the film, wages an internal battle she is unable to articulate. As she struggles to feel comfortable in her own body, the grammar to express this conflict eludes her. However, one day, owing primarily to the internet and the ubiquitous presence of technology in our lives, as well as the swiftly changing times where queer identities are becoming more and more prominent, a whole new world opens for her, introducing her to words that are not mere sounds, but an entire cornucopia of the ideologies and meanings that they carry within. 

All of these ideas that constitute Shakuntala’s journey are handled gingerly, with sensitivity and care. The performance of its primary actor who remains silent for much of the narratorial progression is one of the most notable strengths of the film. The storytelling, though not without a few rough edges in terms of production, exhibits deep potential, presenting the film as hopefully only one of the many such endeavors yet to come.

They/Them | Short Film Nominee

Trigger Warning: Sexual assault 

The world of Swaang is one marked by few dialogues, but detailed action. The story reveals its cards gradually, taking the viewer into a dark, disturbing reality. At its opening, the film gives little inkling of the direction it is headed in. Instead, it introduces us to what seems like an average day in the life of a transgender woman. 

As she moves from one aspect of her life to another, a comment is also conjured on society’s relationship with those who do not conform to its heteronormative boundaries. If on a macro level a statement is being made about the location of the marginalized in society, at a micro level the protagonist has some very serious developments awaiting her. 

Her world gets embroiled in the underbelly of a space where the marginalized find it even more difficult to make themselves heard. Images of violence, rage and assault, along with performances that exhibit potential, are further roped in as storytelling tools, eventually leaving the viewer with a disconcerting narrative about a person’s struggle to reconcile their identity with their lived reality.

Swaang | Short Film Nominee

With an adorable child, who becomes a perfect encapsulation of the innocence and wonder of childhood, as its protagonist, the short film weaves an unexpected, but impactful narrative. It begins on a harmless note in a world where life is marked by simplicity of a small hilly town. The children go to school, are mischievous in their classrooms and learn valuable lessons about friendship. However, a more disconcerting reality awaits underneath the surface that aims to be a mirror to society with its ideas of heteronormativity and its complete failure to accept or understand anyone who might not subscribe to these fixed boxes. The film further makes an important comment on the importance of a family's love and support in bringing about the change in the lives of children. They would one day grow up to become adults and thus put their constructive thought into action to make this world a better, more tolerant space, the story seems to suggest.

Pencil Box | Short Film Nominee

Despite its short length (and perhaps because of it), the film has a powerful message to put across for the viewer. Consequently, its strongest aspect proves to be the story. As several of us struggle with the confinement of the lockdown imposed upon us in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the film draws the viewer's attention to another kind of entrapment. It invokes a reality where a person might find themselves trapped in a body that does not feel like their own, yet the pretentions and the attempts to fit in a society which might not always understand this struggle, continue.

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