Shorts is an experimental project and quite different from what we see in regular Bollywood flicks in terms of film making style, camera work and visual content. No, not all of the films were great or left a lasting impression, but at least there was an attempt to break the jinx of remakes of South Indian or formula films.It’s the courage of doing something out of the box that deserves to be applauded.
The producers definitely deserve a pat on the back for encouraging the young aspiring film makers and for giving the film at least a country wide release even though limited, unlike most such short films,that usually get lost amidst millions of YouTube videos; watched and shared rarely on social networking platforms, no one ever knows who the director was and what went into making these films.
“Shorts” is a 2013 drama that comprises of five short films directed by five filmmakers and produced by Anurag Kashyap and Gunnet Monga. The film was released by PVR Directors’ Rare across Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Kolkata, Surat, Cochin, Ahmedabad and Bangalore in selected theaters. Each of the five stories is distinctly different from the other in style and content.
The film kicks off with Sujata starring the very talented Huma Qureshi and directed by Shlok Sharma. Shlok had also directed a short film named “Hidden Cricket” and his next venture is a full length feature Haraamkhor which stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Sujata is the deeply moving tale of a helpless young girl who spent her entire childhood being physically and mentally harassed by her own cousin. Finally after getting no assistance from the police or NGOs, she manages to escape to Pune where she stays alone making her own living. But when her cousin finally tracks her down, she gathers all her inner strengths to overcome her fear and what follows is a riveting and shocking sequence of incidents. I really liked the narrative style and the screenplay of this film, the way it goes back and forth between the present and past depicting the dreadful life of Sujata.
The next story is Epilogue by Siddharth Gupta which stars Richa Chaddha and Arjun Shrivastav. The film revolves around the life of a couple and depicts how they deal with possessiveness, isolation and depression. The film is visually quite enriching but I didn’t particularly like it. Probably it tries to convey a lot of things in a short span of time but somehow I was not able to connect to the story.
The third one is a Bengali film named Audacity by Anirban Roy starring Preeti Singh, Sankar Debnath and Kanchan Mullick. The film is about a rebellious teenage girl who decides to teach her dominant father a lesson when he forbids her to play the dance music in her room. The situation eventually goes out of control of the family and spreads to the neighborhood which humiliates her father who boasts so much about his self-respect. There is an underlying dark humor in the film that drew me in. It’s sweet, simple and leaves you with a smile.
The next is a dark heartbreaking film named Mehfuz starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who needs no introduction and directed by Rohit 
Pandey. The film stars with a line from Gulzaar’s poem “Death you are a poem. And a poem has promised to meet me.” The film is set up in a city which is torn apart by the outrage, violence and madness of its people. But miles away from the city, in a crematorium, a person takes care of the dead bodies which keep increasing every day. He seems to be unaffected by the incidents happening around but one day his life takes a turn when he sees a girl on the empty street. The film is dark, somber and gloomy and there was a great potential in the story. But somehow, the ending seemed a bit predictable to me and I could see that coming before the climatic sequence. It would have been more delicious if the director had approached a different narrative style and had kept us guessing till the end.
The final tale
and my most favorite is Shor by Neeraj Ghaywan which stars Gangs of Wasseypur actor Vineet Singh and Ratnabali Bhattacharjee. Neeraj had directed another short with Ratnabali, “The Epiphany” which I found quite fascinating. “The Epiphany” dealt with a couple who met in a college reunion after divorce. Hence, I had expectations from this one as well and I must say it was not just fulfilled but surpassed as well.The film starts with the struggling routine life of a lower middle class couple in Mumbai. But one fine day, their lives change over a phone call in unfavorable circumstances. The film is set in a ruthless realistic world and yet has so much poetic significance touching the different strings of love, separation and death.
Talking about the performances each and every actor are pitch perfect in their roles but Ratnabali and Huma Qureshi stand out with their remarkable act. Huma performs brilliantly in her role of a fearful, harassed young lady and her fear is blended with extreme frustration and anger. And Ratnabali is such a brilliant actress, her accent, her body language; her emotional breakdown was enthralling to watch. Nawaz was excellent as well conveying his emotions without any dialogues.
Shorts is a perfect example of how mainstream Bollywood cinema is evolving and thanks to Anurag and Guneet for pushing the boundaries and coming up with brilliant innovative concepts. I recommend you watch it with an open mind and for a different flavor and taste. It may not be an overwhelming experience but you won’t feel disappointed either.
Check out the trailer below:
Cinema Paradiso 