Buried in the secret nooks of our hearts are the desires, unreasonable and trivial as they are, they are the small delights which we strive for. Given all the amount of freedom we are acquainted with, it is those small restrictions that look negatively upon our freedom and it is them we want to free ourselves from. Nevertheless, it is the small things that make up a huge world.

“Khayali Pulao” is a short film starring, MostlySane aka Prajakta Kohli, about those small things that make up a dreamland of a girl Asha from a small village Majri in Haryana. Asha is the school topper who finds herself attracted to the sports world and wants to enroll in the school handball team. She appears for the trial and practice round of the selection process and puts in all her efforts to get selected. But despite of all the practice the coach of the team chides her and tells her that she is not meant for sports.

She, however, is perseverant and consistent in her endeavors to get into the team. While everyone around her is trying to decipher the cause that swayed the direction of her mind towards sports and track the sudden shift of her interest, she reserves the reason to herself and for the very end for us to find.

The end traces the very crucial theme of small neglected aspects getting live, of trivial little desires finding their satisfaction and of the ironic freedom we are subjected to yet are restrained from. It is not just the story of Asha of village Majri, it is a story of every ‘asha’ of every soul that lies thirsty waiting for the drop of fulfillment to quench its thirst.

Watch out Khayali Pulao to find the reason behind Asha’s sudden dire passion for handball.

The cataclysm of this pandemic did successfully veil all the brightness that could have infused hope and mentally support the threatened humankind. Social contacts that provide consolation are prohibited even the doors of the religious places that provided solace in the dark times are closed, leaving humankind drowning in the sombre ocean with no straw. The only thing left with us is that very innate element of our being, the very element that has revived itself for our rescue, Humanity. Humanity which has no religion and which sees no religion.

‘Tamas’ is a short film portraying the life of people stuck at their homes during the lockdown period. The story revolves around a man named Rishi who is trapped in his apartment in Mumbai away from his family. During this isolation the man feels desolate and bereft and circumstances provoke him to lose his tranquility and jump off the balcony. While he is about to take this grave decision, he hears a voice of a lady from across the wall. With time the neighbors bond talking over the wall but there is a dark truth to be unraveled.

While the plot is unfolding, we see in Rishi a religiously chauvinistic person. He shows rancour for people of Muslim community. In the times when humanity should be the only religion, this dissection of society based on religious communities is the fact of grief. His antipathy based on the religious division, looking at a particular community as an outsider is the mentality that gives rise to religious conflict.

It is choice given by law to follow a religion of one’s wish but it is a crime against the syndicate of humanity distinguishing someone based on their choice of religion. It is a good time to remember a nursery aphorism “United we stand, divided we fall”.

The short film ends with a fabulous twist for us to see beyond the religious walls and stand together as followers of humanity.

Army officers are the real heroes of the nation but they’re the heroes of the battlefield their families which they leave behind are the heroes outside the battlefield which fight the constant dismay. The short film is about these unsung heroes, the family, that constantly prays for the well-being of the person out there in the service of the nation.

The film features the wife and son of an army officer who live alone in a village while the officer his away on his duty. The husband sends letters to his wife with the salutation ‘Meri Preeto’ and the son narrates the letter by his father to his mother. With the letter he assures them of his health, adding the beautiful domestic element tells them how much he likes the trifles they send him and sends them his impending love. The letter gives them the warmth of satisfaction and sways their dismay away.

One day as usual another letter arrives while the mother is away. Son receives the letter only to find that instead of his father’s love its an obituary of his death. He is devastated and decides not to tell his mother and swallows the letter. He is then surrounded by nostalgia remembers all the morals his father taught him. Next morning the village postman arrives with another letter and the mother requests him to read for her.

Watch out to find if she will find out the news of his husband’s death?

In these times with border tensions between India and China, watch this film to understand the plight of the martyr’s family and pray for the welfare of the soldiers that guard our lives on the cost of their own.

Sexism or gender prejudice traces back to the rural days when the male chauvinistic society suppressed the females and impoverished them of their rights. It was found just decades back in the form of female foeticide and is still witnessed in those inhumane nooks where one gender is preferred over others. In order of attaining the ideals of an egalitarian society gender choice should be a rhetorical question itself.

The short-film, ‘Why not Daughter’ deals with the same omnipresent issue of gender prejudice. The film features a happy family with two children a girl and a boy. They enjoy an equal share in their happy family but then a whirlpool swirls their world and taints this equality. The destiny plots to offer a choice that can grant the life of either the son or the daughter and as evident by the name of the short film the son was chosen. Society reserves the show of subservience for egalitarianism but its loyalty still belongs to the gender prejudices.

While on the surface we might express our longing for gender equality but are virtues of gender equality actually accepted by us is the question the film raises. The film is a retrospective account of our society that claims of being unsupportive for gender prejudices but still praises those who follow the claims but ironically praises are for the revolution not for the convention.

Spare 16 minutes of your day watching this short film, discover how destiny plotted the choice and introspect if you’re free from gender prejudices.

Bound with the fetters of absurd obstinacy, society shushed the ardent cries of unacceptance and differentiated treatment towards eunuchs and in its mutters ridiculed ‘them’ to shame. Ironically, the shame should rest in the lap of those who inferred it with narrow-minded unacceptance. In this pride month, we proudly suggest you a short film “Pencil Box” that reflects the gut-wrenching reality of a society that sabotages gender equality.

The protagonist of the short film is a small boy innocent, unaware of the of world’s ways and kept away from an untold truth. The joyfulness of the kid bound with restrictions, restraining him from outdoor activities and school trip, can formerly be identified as a general parental concern unless we are introduced to the climax scene where a group of eunuchs arrive to take him to “where he belongs”.

The sad fact to note is that even the kid’s family pays hostage to such rudimentary beliefs and kept the kid in dark, treating the fact of him being a eunuch some sort of secret. Instead of being open regarding the child’s gender identity and fighting against the ill societal norms that look down with shame upon any gender.

The group of eunuchs represent the ancient orthodox of conservative society which treats eunuchs differently while the kid symbolizes the modern-day cry of the society for acceptance of eunuchs as a normal being and a part of the society. While the eunuchs stand to take the child with them because the society wouldn’t accept him staying amidst them, there can be seen a personification of the fight between the deep-rooted gender inequality and liberalism.

The battle’s tiring, the result uncertain. Will the rudimentary society victoriously hand the child to the eunuchs or will the retaliation help bring about some change? It’s worth finding out.