Surely, I am not the only one mortally scared of socialising once the world has normalised and the word ‘pandemic’ is reduced to an unsavoury aftertaste. As if communicating wasn’t scary enough already, the deadly dagger of disease hanging over hasn’t made things entirely easy for us. But the human spirit has never been stopped before and I doubt it ever will. We have always found a way to turn even the most tragic events into moments of intense bonding and passion.

And so we find ourselves sneaking a peek into the lives of Nandini(Ahem!) and Kush as they meet up for a date and see where the evening takes them in the tricky city of dreams. Their plans don’t seem to go all as they hoped, but would it turn into a thorn in their side or a cherishable moment of friendship and bonding? In just eleven minutes ,the narrative establishes interesting characters and chemistries. The way it deals with the touchy topic of the virus is also very comforting. As they galavant through conversations and revelations about each other, one of them ends up endearingly being called a ‘Haba Goba’. The rest I’m afraid you’ll have to figure out on your own. After all, stories are nothing without our unique sense of understanding them. Don’t forget to tell us how you liked them!

However, I will leave you with this one message of hope, if you’ve felt nervous or anxious in these ‘unprecedented times’, this short film will give you all the feels.

P.S. If you are a tea lover, you might enjoy this even more. Happy Watching!

Is ignoring the measures meant for safety’s sake daring operation or is it abominable to yourself and to the society at large? “Blue Helmet is a short film that will portray the assuaged question in the most alarming way.

Mohanjeet Kalsi’s “The Blue Helmet” is the awarded winner at Acharya Tulsi Short Film Festival and semi-finalist at Los Angeles CineFest among multiple other appreciations. The short film with a humorous take, showcases an issue people rarely feel the need to throw light on in the magnanimity of ignorance: Road Safety . The film, albeit void of any dialogues and lingual interactions, exceptionally succeeds in its venture to make known the perennial theme present only through cinematography.

The film opens into a regular morning of a middle-aged lady living by herself, a middle class life. The lady is soon discovered with an evidently weird obsession with a “blue helmet”. This builds up the storyline for the innate theme established towards the end. The helmet seems to give her a sense of safety and comfort while she rummages through the chaotic streets of Mumbai, seemingly unaffected by the fact that people saw her as an object of mockery. But is it really an object of mockery? The short film alarmingly answers this question. Another question is whether the visage of delusional safety that the “helmet” gives her is sufficient or is it an object metaphorically symbolising and ardently urging the society for the urgent need of some change? However it is much later in the film that we are informed about the lady’s perspective on the helmet. And this shall be left for you to discover and ponder upon.

In the times of degrading ethos and materialisation of pure feelings like love there remain the remnants which remind us of the valiant qualities of love. Qualities that know how to transcend the humane barriers that come in the way of attaining the abstract essence.

The barriers of gender, of communities, of religion, love transcends them all. But there remains the history as the witness of mortal injuries given by the protectors of these barriers to the ones who decide to transcend them and that forms a stereotype. That creates the terror in the hearts, terror that turns the valiant blood to water. Terror of being abolished by the society in some or the other way.

“Chilgam” is a short film that explores the same themes. The protagonists are the lovers who share the bond of love but are seperated by the dogmas of religious communities that are surrounded with stereotypical beliefs of not being allowed to get married by the community diversion. Can a religion of a person come in the way of choosing the one they love?

The harsh truth that is explored in the short film is that the terror created by the stereotypes prevails in both the lovers. They meet hiding from the society and boy is even ready to sacrifice his love in the name of maintaining the stereotypes and surrendering to it. You’re not only to find the religious stereotypes but altogether the stereotype of considering and comparing love with adultery. But will the elixir of love help them stand undeterred in the favour of their love in front of these communal stereotypes or will their story end in some tragedy? This is for you to find out.

Meaning can be found in anything, anywhere. Sometimes the most resonating and touching ones are found in the spaces between the words. The art often lies in the tasteful use of negative space, it is always the things left unsaid that end up haunting us the most. Short films have a keen way of portraying this subtlety. It is encouraging to see the rise of alternate cinema and unique mediums of storytelling, they have thrived in the shadows of major film industries while harbouring a plethora of great stories. Their slice-of-life nature pushes us to pause a little and think about the lives we lead and how we affect those around us.

‘Almost’ is a six-minute film featuring a heartbreaking conversation between Ankush Bahuguna and Shibani Bedi which stabs you with the bittersweet pain of separation we have all felt in our lives. It almost juxtaposes us in their situation and makes us take the journey of making a difficult choice. Sometimes, it becomes impossible to love someone while truly being ourselves, and what follows is a painful decision. The love never dies, it is only felt from a different perspective; this time through the lens of a phone call. Where major would clamour the pain with a song or a montage, they evoke it through visceral dialogues and simplicity. After watching it, I only thought ‘Just a little bit more, please’.

On a different theme, we have ‘Waqt’, a nine-minute film by Pocket Films-Indian Short. It is narrated by you guessed it! Time. One thinks of time as the ultimate storyteller, the canvas upon which we paint with the memories of our lives, but what does time have to teach? This sweet film takes us through the lives of three people who are dealing with time in completely
different ways. It shows us how kindness bridges the gap between the longest possible distance between two things, the distance of time itself! One simply cannot miss out on the gem that Indian short films are.

Courage to stand for oneself is all that it takes to move out of toxic situations. And sometimes one can derive that courage from the most unexpected places and people in life. ‘The Relationship Manager’ is a short film portraying this beautiful unsaid relation.

Directed by Falguni Thakore and starring Divya Dutta, Anup Soni, Anupam Kher and Juhi Babbar Soni, the film is a story where a relationship manager senses the despondency of a client and motivates her to show courage in traumatic circumstances. This relationship manager instead of marketing his service ended up showing the reality of life to her. It portrays compromises that hundreds of women make on a daily basis and some succumb to the atrocities of it forgetting that all they need is little bit courage to come out of it.

This film just shows that there is so much that still needs to be changed even in the so-called modern world that we call today. Still, people with backward thinking suffer through unfortunate things just to keep a regular life intact. This is what needs to be changed, this is what the world is fighting for, the crime lies in those small moments that we tend to ignore, it’s time we start taking actions and make this a better world.

Watch the film to know whether she gathers the courage to stand up for herself?