People grow at an incredible pace, from infancy to adulthood, innocence to maturity, from daughter to mother. But at the same time, over years of evolution one realised humans haven’t really changed at all. We still find faults and complain. We still crave attention and relevance. And above all else, we need love and understanding. A family is a place where all these things collide and explode. With so many cracks and crevices in our personalities, understanding and kindness can heal everything. 

Suttabaazi is a thirteen-minute short-film by Kabeer Khurana featuring Renee Sen, Komal Chhabria and Rahul Vohra as a typical family. But every typical family has some dysfunctionalities. Diya, portrayed by Renee, is a 19-year-old social media star who resorts to smoking to relieve her stress. Her parents are also facing their own struggles. In the midst of all the chaos that the pandemic ensued, the mother and daughter find a way to spread some light through the cracks and create a bond. 

Not only does this film touch upon the effects of smoking, stress, isolation and social media. It also showcases a story in which intergenerational and familial gaps are bridged to form beautiful friendships. Because every relationship boils down to a strong friendship. It is also the acting debut of Renee who shows a lot of promise and potential.

Suttabaazi packs in humour, emotions and slice-of-life content in an awesome package which is definitely worth watching. Appealing to audiences of all kind, this one is not to miss out on!

Disclaimer: Smoking is injurious to health.

Fate. Something most of us believe in. Everything is destined to be a certain way. Are our lives, like stories, being written as we move, with every passing second. Or is it all already written before we step into this world? Nevertheless, every story has an end. A happy one at that. Doesn’t it? ‘One Extra Plate’ is an 8 minute long, short film questioning this.

The film begins in a cosy little café. And we follow our three main characters – a waiter, a film writer and a novelist. ‘One Extra Plate’ narrates their stories parallelly with smooth transitions tying the entire plot together. Every character is stuck, not being able to come up with an end for their own life stories and the tales they are writing about. But, if it isn’t happy, it probably isn’t the end, right?

We meet our characters in the middle of their life. The waiter, head over heels in love with a girl he’s too nervous to speak to. The film writer obliviously rambling about how friendship could never turn into love, while his best friend sits, utterly in love with him. Tying in the topics of fate with love, we see each character question the end of their love story.

Throughout the 8 mins, ‘One extra plate’ introduces us to our character, setting them up allowing us to connect to them. Not only that, but subtle hints are dropped, connecting these three strangers with the common theme – the one extra plate.

Do they get an end for their stories, the ones they are writing about? Well, you’ll have to figure that out on your own! Click the link below to find out if the waiter ever gets his girl; if the film writer’s friendship actually turns to love!

In this age of information, education is a birth-right. Without it, we are left untethered in this world that simply refuses to slow its pace. Without it, there is no hope to improve the human condition. Knowledge is power and a power that can do a lot of good. Education can happen in many forms. And as we have learnt this year, it doesn’t necessarily need to take place in a classroom. It occurred in the gurukuls of yore. And it happens even as we stroll around the road staring at buildings, It happens everywhere. But the only thing it needs is a sincere mind that yearns to learn. And children have that.

Released by Pocket Films – Indian Short Films, the central theme of Awakening is kindness. It shows the parallel and contrasting lives of two young boys who seem to be skipping school and a young girl who is desperate to go there.

While at first glance we think about the privilege of the boys and the unfortunate circumstance of the girl, we soon think about how they are just children. Children who are made to adapt to a rigorous world. People forget that both of them can be taught in their own way. And the end is equally thought-provoking; as the girl is happily accepted into the school, the boys learn textbook lessons in the arms of nature. 

And that is when we realise, whatever form knowledge is delivered, it matters that it reaches every child in every corner of the world.

Is there a definite way of knowing what is real and what is not? As philosophers and scientists grapple to find the answer, writer and director Ricky has turned it into something brilliant altogether. The beauty of a short film is that the mind gets very little processing time to actually understand what happened. And as a result, it leaves an indelible impact on you. The idea here is simple. One must use certain plot-driving elements, twists and reveals to leave the viewers in a daze.

‘Black Forest’ is an 11-minute short film following the life of Pallavi and Rakesh. They are a young couple in love, but soon certain events unravel which change everything. The line between imagination and reality is blurred, as Pallavi is left alone to face the truth. By the climax of the film, the viewer realises the clever tidbits of foreshadowing that were shown earlier. And the entire thing makes sense. It is a movie riddled with horror, fluff and amazing revelations.

You might definitely be putting this into a loop. The actors do a commendable job in their characterisation. So much so that in just eleven minutes they were able to paint the entire picture of their characters and their relationships. With the addition of a haunting background score, this makes for a great watch. If you like the works of Shymalan and Fincher and Aronofsky, then this one is definitely for you. Congratulations to the entire team for creating this wonderful piece!

What are you waiting for? Put on your cinephile cap, get some popcorn and get watching!

Watch the full movie on MX Player

Where do we end and let a character begin? If what the great playwright William Shakespeare said was true; and all the world is indeed a stage and we merely actors. Then, where do we draw the limit between us and our portrayal? All passionate artists are textured with a little bit of obsession. Though perfection is futile, the reach for it drives people to the depth of excellence(or insanity). This is a theme very popularly explored in many mediums with Black Swan, Whiplash and Birdman being stellar examples of it. Tisca Chopra has brought us another feather to attach to this bejewelled cap. Creating a world in a world, Chopra brilliantly portrays an actress desperately trying to rediscover herself in a world hell-bent to tell her that her time is up. 

The setting of the theatre in the short film acts as a brilliant metaphor for a setting where the sense of self blurs out. The film focuses on Radha Malhotra’s (Played by Chopra) attempts to completely immerse into the character (loosely based on Virginia Woolf). She must do so at all costs: both to save her career and herself. There perhaps comes a time in every artist’s life where they seem to lose their ‘flair’ or their ‘x-factor’. Maybe this applies to every human. Our passions lead us to a place where we feel like we might end of losing them. And that is unbearable. How one chooses to come out of this ‘slump’ either makes or brakes us. What do you think will happen to Radha Malhotra? Will she be able to ignite her flame or succumb to it? Or in a twist of fate- will she do both. Watch now to find out.

Brimming with the brilliance of all the cast and crew, this 17-minute short film is perfect for your midnight’s deep-thinking sessions!