Piyush Roy
The short film category winners at the Filmfare Awards were tad more ambitious outings, with the best actor and actress winners hailing from mainstream cinema, albeit better known as actors than stars…
Sometimes you just need a little smile to escape unconsciously at the end of a film’s viewing, to be assured that what you just spent your valuable minutes on, was a good tale told – short and sweet!
Short film festivals and award ceremonies, which have been consistently emerging as keenly contested film events of independent reckon in the West; are now fast catching up in the world’s most prolific industry too, especially in their possibility of a platform for the small among the enterprising. All you need is an eye for deft camera handling, and a taste for good, ‘different’ telling that has some relatable vignettes sourced in. I even have been to festivals for films made on a smartphonewith participants ranging from students and amateurs to even veterans occasionally.
The short film category winners at the Filmfare Awards however were tad more ambitious outings, with the best actor and actress winners hailing from mainstream cinema, albeit better known as actors than stars. Manoj Bajpayee in Taandav and Tisca Chopra in Chutney, deliver some fabulous short takes to knock-out effect. Taandav offers few uncanny moments in the life of a Mumbai policeman battling multiple failed expectations demands on personal and professional fronts. On one Ganpati festival night duty, he just lets himself go in a crazy dance binge to the vigorous beats of revellers, who approach him to resolve a fight. Why indeed, should the police be always on duty whenever a city wishes to opt for any date with festivities? The film makes this pointed observation, as a shock surprise without sermonising in just about an 11-minute telling. Chutney starts as a small town gossip tale that ends with a twist so sinister that it makes a memorable monster makeover of its commoner protagonist, played by Tisca Chopra to a sumptuous ‘aunty-turned-avenger’ effect!
Looking for these films on YouTube in retrospect opened me to a wealth of other nominee films and submissions from across the country, resulting in a far more entertaining evening spent than wasting with TV’s predictable comings and goings. Chutney’s twist-in-the-tail ending also got it the Filmfare jury’s award for the Best Film, while a starless Khamakha by Aarti Bagdi wowed all, masses and classes alike, to take home the audience choice award. At the heart of Bagdi’s film is that simple recipe got right, on how to evoke a ‘smile’at the end of any telling. The film charts little chance encounters between an uneasy hero and a sprightly heroine, ordinary but smart people from next door, who are comfortable in their skin, character and outlooks on life. The film, mounted as a conversation between two strangers in a bus, treads on myriad random musings from languages to love that work a believable connect through a wonderfully taut screenplay.
These three little films, also negotiate genres ranging from thriller to satire, and some critical commentary on life notes from today, liberally thrown between. Khamakha even manages to pluck a song within!
Short films are here to stay. Audience perceptions have indeed come a long way, when anything less than three hours without a plethora of stars in grandiose display was anything but paisa vasool, to now rooting for short and simple takes on life with or without stars. At the core of this emerging genre’s success, however lies the impact and number of unforgettable moments explored, because the short films, unlike their long counterparts do not enjoy the luxury of time to turn an average story to impact, only after a film’s halftime.
So is the future ‘short’? Well, your guess is as good as mine!
All these films are available for free viewing on YouTube