One day a grandfather decides to write a letter to his newly born grandson. He condenses all his experiences and lessons learnt from life in a letter which this beautiful short film shares with the viewer. In a world where there is no end to headlines about hatred, pain and loss, Khat reinstills hope most poignantly. Maybe giving life a second chance is not too bad an idea. Maybe we were put here to make it a more wonderful place, even if slightly so. This short film leaves you with all of this more. It reminds you why it's important to never give up hope, to always remember to fall in love, and above all, to never stop dreaming and trying.

Khat | Short Film of the Day

This short film is not meant for a quiet, cold night when you are alone with your thoughts and their many complexities. It will offer you several voices, but only one face. As Kalki Koechlin skilfully shoulders the narrative with an unsurprisingly brilliant performance, she moves from one life situation to another with only voices of invisible characters to accompany her. Do they exist in real life or are they only a figment of her imagination? This is one of the many questions the film will not answer for you. A loose understanding of the narrative suggests a murder (probably of her dreams?) and the protagonist's perpetual struggle with the Lady Macbeth effect as she keeps washing her hands vigorously. The compulsion to earn money for an ailing family member, the constant instructions of a boss and the desperate need to hold down a job have pinned her to her desk. But is there any escape at hand?

The Job | Short Film of the Day

What happens when you have lost everything and there's no going further? That perhaps is the moment of complete freedom. Maybe an imagined duty or a forced responsibility holds you back from doing everything you want to do and being everything that you can be. However, who would you be if all your expectations were removed? This Arjun Mathur starrer attempts to answer the same. Follow the romance of a character, played most skilfully by Mathur, with his long-nurtured desires in Khudi. The music video also scores full points for the smooth intermingling of graceful cinematography with soulful music composed by The Local Train.

Khudi | Short Film of the Day

At first glance, the film is simply the story of a wooden stamp and her dreams and hopes. However, soon the narrative delves deeper and brings in a lovely comment about the idea of leaving behind a lasting imprint in your wake. The film's intentions thus come to be realized by combining the horizon of expectation set so far with the desire to be remembered in a manner that outlives your existence. 

As the skilled first-person voiceover is coupled with sophisticated visuals, together they invoke seamless poetry and beautiful lyricism. This, in turn, ensures that the portrayal and the progression of events remains efficient throughout. 

The plot development, color palettes and sound, all correspond to the same, ensuring that the entire creation comes together as a composite whole of several complementary parts, while simultaneously communicating its intentions lucidly to the viewer. The aesthetic and sense of calm it conjures is bound to stay with you long after you are done watching the film.

Ek Lakdi Thi | Short Film of the Month

The film’s story is a heartfelt engagement with dreams, and what they mean for its different characters. Located amidst the very real struggles of survival and somehow making ends meet is our little protagonist. Pintu dreams of a world where he does not have to go to school to an indifferent, lazy, and cruel teacher. He also dreams of fancy sneakers and a future away from the brick kiln where his father works. His aspirations are not simply confined to that but further include the desire for a life like Muniya’s, a peer who does not go to school and instead helps her mother with domestic chores. Muniya, on the other hand, covets a world where children like her go to school. 
Pintu’s parents try to hold on to their jobs or seek out new ones, in the hope of securing some kind of stability in their lives. The film further interweaves frustration and hope, two sides of the same coin, with all of it, alongside the constant effort that is required to keep life afloat. It presents a glimpse into a harsh, exploitative unfair world where a little boy still dreams of seemingly petty things like branded shoes, and a space away from his callous school. 
There is a slight loosening of control when it comes to visual consistency as the film reaches its conclusion, but one which is easy to overlook in the face of all the other strengths it presents. From a screenplay marked by long, fixed frames, to performances, notable and endearing in equal measure, to its world-building, authentic and meticulous throughout, 'Pintu' incorporates them all, and remains steadfast in the exploration of its thematic concerns explored from the eyes of children and adults alike.

Pintu  | Short Film of the Month

The documentary, with its seamless, skilled camerawork and intelligent visual storytelling, introduces you to Parul Chauhan, a homemaker in a corner of Delhi, and her relationship with her motorcycle. Through her story and experiences, the film offers a pertinent comment on the location of women in a society where women like Chauhan are still anomalies and possible only due to a fortunate and near-perfect alignment of several moving parts - the most important of them all being a supportive family. As Chauhan takes us deeper into her world, we are introduced to how her riding allowed her to overcome several health problems. She further asserts that she hopes and plans to leave the women around her with the same indomitable spirit as her by teaching them to drive two-wheelers as well.

Journey of a Housewife to a Rider | Short Film of the Month

It is the end of a seemingly long day for an auto driver who now sits and eats his dinner outside his house. His wife is deep in sleep in the darkness inside, thereby forcing him to eat his meal in the light of his stationary auto. 
In this shadowy realm of exhaustion, and constant daily struggle, our protagonist encounters a brainwave, one that convinces him that robbing the affluent house of a patron from earlier in the night, is indeed the answer to all his woes and unfulfilled dreams. 
The subsequent plot weaves a humorous, involving ride that is especially notable in its seamlessness. 

While the circumstance in itself is the disconcerting reality of the vast majority of the have-nots in the country, the film forever maintains its lighthearted tonality. The writing, performance, and the technical aspects of lighting and visuals, bolster the endeavor further, at the same time, ensuring that all its punches land, as well as it remains entertaining and deeply involving for the viewer throughout. Though thoughts that approach you in the darkness of the night might make complete sense in the moment, the same might not hold true in daylight. Whether our protagonist is capable of making this distinction, between dreams and nightmares, thus becomes the question central to the narrative, the answer to which awaits at its conclusion.

Jaagran  | Short Film of the Month

The film is rightly titled The Ride for what a ride it is! Essentially, the premise is defined by the collision of two unlikely strangers shooting an Instagram Reel. However, within it rest several thematic concerns that bring to life a conflict between passion and practical, professional demands. It invokes the idea of virality, something that has given rise to a new currency in the contemporary world. If you do manage to accumulate a significant amount of the same, irrespective of your disdain for the medium, an important realization awaits you - that you are not as impervious to its charms as you thought. The film begins with a ride that Arjun is sharing with his colleague, one who is about to break to him a bitter news - he has been fired from his job from their agency due to his inability to deliver Reel videos according to the client's wishes. And yet, at the heels of all the despair, a pivotal development follows. Leaving this world of advertising and corporate control behind in his colleague's car, Arjun now steps into the colorful shadows of an auto whose shimmer refuses to be dulled (even in the face of Arjun's explicit request to turn off the glaring light). This marks the protagonist's journey away from his comfort zone of order and fixed ideas about creativity. It is what lies on the other side of this experience that conveys the film's core message, tying all of the aforementioned thematic concerns with an uplifting sense of hope.

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