Vinay Chhawal's Thappad, my favourite of the lot, does the same in context of a child's imagination. Rakesh Sain's Nano So Phobia, about an old Parsi lady (Swaroop Sampat) whose growing dementia elevates her odd phobia of dwarfism, is too satisfied with its light-hearted gaze and theatrical punchline instead of aiming to examine the cultural epidemic of lonely pensioners through the lens of full-blown black comedy. It's never easy to earn a moment of release, less so in a 20-minute sequence that can at best condense the buildup into a highway of binary feelings. There's not much wrong with the film, but it's the degree of rightness that matters: I didn't feel the coming-of-age rhythm of its protagonist as much as I should have. This reverse-engineering – where the filmmaker seems to be struggling to flesh out the body leading to the solid punchline – is also visible in Vijeyeta Kumar's Sunny Side Upar, a short about a workaholic doctor (Rima Kallingal) who experiences a life-is-too-short epiphany in the hospital halls. Much of it is designed to highlight Gupta's uncanny body language, but the quirky background score and the repetitive framing of domestic routine point to an arc that simply bides its time to reach a striking final shot. Based on a middle-class homemaker who decides to protest against her taken-for-granted status, Pinni is visibly in awe of its lead actor. The most high-profile of the anthology is arguably Pinni, starring Neena Gupta and directed by Tahira Kashyap Khurrana (the better half of Ayushmann Khurrana). It has a few Original shows as well, including Zindagi Inshort.For instance, let me start with the shorts that, despite some sweet performances, overstate their social environment at the cost of narrative potential. Launched in 2019, the platform has partnered with and offers content from a number of other OTT platforms such as Arre, Pocket Aces’ Dice Media, TVF, Viu, and Voot. The films’ cast also include Aisha Ahmed, Bijou Thaangjam, Deepak Dobriyal, Isha Talwar, Manjot Singh, Nakuul Mehta, Rima Kallingal, Rytasha Rathore, Sanjay Kapoor, Shafin Patel, Shishir Sharma, Swaroop Sampat and Vedika Nawani.įlipkart Video is an online video streaming platform which is available for free consumption on the Flipkart App. The directors with producer Guneet Monga (standing third from left) Picture Credit: The Times of India It is best to save it for the last of the seven films. Finally, there is Vijayeta Kumar’s “Sunny Side Upar”, a wholesome ride of emotions, weaving together work-life imbalance, the fear of losing loved ones, and more. “Chhaju Ke Dahi Bhalle” is the quintessential (yet very realistic) ‘cute love story’, a familiar trope in YouTube sketches, and has been directed by Gautam Govind Sharma. While Vinay Chhawal’s “Thappad” is a really sweet tale of a little boy helping his elder sister fight bullies. “Swaaha” is Smrutika Panigrahi’s weird and funny take on how a couple deals with infidelity in the middle of a wedding reception. Rakesh Sain’s “Nano se Phobia” deals with loneliness and fears that older people encounter. So does Divya Dutta’s character in “Sleeping Partner” where Punarvasu Naik touches upon desire and marital rape. Instead of walking away from it, she turns it around in one swift move. In Tahira Kashyap’s “Pinni” Neeta Gupta plays a woman who is only visible (or not) when her labour is needed. The description on Netflix reads, “Complicated marriages, digital romances, domestic dilemmas and schoolyard bullies get the spotlight in these seven, slice-of-life short films.” Running between 11-22 minutes, the films deescalate many “complicated” life experiences, and do so in quite interesting ways, either by displacing power between characters or by adding a humourous tint. Even though they can be brought together under the ‘feel-good stories’ umbrella, the topics covered in the films are wide ranging. However, Zindagi Inshort is a little different. As it can be noticed from several recently released anthology works, most such projects generally revolve around a central theme, on which each of the films is based on. This reception reinforces the growing acceptance and eagerness to consume short films. It is one of the Top 10 trending programs on the platform in India as of today. The anthology was initially released on 19th February 2020 on Flipkart Video, and more recently, it was added to Netflix on 22nd February 2021. Zindagi Inshort is an anthology comprising of 7 short films in Hindi that has been produced by Sikhya Entertainment production company.
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