Ek Dopahar ★★★★

An amazing short film with Huma and Gauhar in the lead.

Synopsis

Ek Dopahar is a touching (or shocking) story of relationships and bonding. This short film is about a girl Raina who broker-up with her boyfriend eight years back. Come to today, she has to visit his city for some office work and wants to meet with him. Mostly he would be married by now, probably with kids, and his wife may not like Raina! But Raina is interested in meeting him just as a friend, a close friend.

What works

Firstly, Ek Dopahar has amazing acting from Huma and Gauhar. This short film is perhaps the best I have seen from these two actors. The anxiety of Huma’s character when she awaits for the email response is so natural. Gauhar has also delivered an amazing performance! Sorry, can’t write more here because of potential spoilers.

But more than acting, Ek Dopahar’s appeal is in the underlying story and the direction. Kudos to writer-director Swati’s work who has woven this lovely short film! For those of you who may catch it, the short film is unique in its writing! Ek Dopahar has two entirely different interpretations and the short film does justice to each of them.

Minor Spoiler Alert. Better to read after watching. Hints for differential interpretation 1. It relates to a scene in Ek Dopahar which involves a phone call.
2. The other possibility lead to entirely opposite portrayal of Gauhar’s character

What could have been better

Ek Dopahar has nothing at which I would like to point my fingers. The short film is a mice work! Let me know if you, the reader thinks differently!

Verdict

Overall, Ek Dopahar is defintiely worth a watch! In fact, it is almost at that point, where we mark the short film as a must watch. Though please note that the topic is very small and this short film may not appeal to everyone.

AglaPlay Verdict: A very good short film!
AglaPlay Rating: 4.0/5
Language: Hindi / English
Duration: ~11 minutes
Writer-Director: Swati Srivastava
Cast: Huma Qureshi &
Gauhar Khan
Ek Dopahar: A well-done short film!

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Ved and Arya ★★★

Arya surprise visits her brother on Friday evening. She is looking all lively and casual, but is everything normal?

Synopsis

Ved and Arya is story of brother-sister bonding. This short story focuses on the non-judgemental nature of the brotherly love. Arya visits her brother Ved on a Friday evening which gets Ved concerned. After all, it is a Friday evening and Arya always has some plans for Friday. From there, this story of Arya’s failure to hide the special thing in her life opens by layers.

What works

Ved and Arya has a very soothing undertone. The setup is very homely, relaxing and lighting is done very well. This short film can be watched as a short break from an otherwise hectic day spent in fighting cacophony of life.

Another thing we loved was camera work. May be it is an unplanned outcome, but camera moves as if it is following the conversation. Specially in the scene where Ved and Arya are in the kitchen, the camera focus increases with their conversation. While it may be missed consciously, we are affected by the sub-conscious effect of such nice work and soothing lighting.

Nakuul and Sanaya fit in their roles of Ved and Arya well. We have no complaints there.

What could be better

The story! The story could have been better. Like really, the story has absolutely nothing in it. Ved and Arya has supposedly a shocking reveal, but it was so obvious that we didn’t even bat an eyelid.

Also, the conversations are done well but their is hardly any real content in the discussions. The whole conversation moves with agenda of bringing out Arya’s past and Ved’s care for her. It is so uni-directional that we simply lost interest after a point.

Verdict

In summary, Ved and Arya is not bad, but sadly we cannot say it very good either. How about, a simple ‘Good’?

AglaPlay Verdict: Worth A Watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi / English
Duration: ~12 minutes
Writer: Sharanya Rajgopal
Director: Ritesh Menon
Cast: Nakuul Mehta,
Sanaya Irani
Ved and Arya: Bonding of siblings

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Adheen ★★★½

Family tension, challenges with past, issues in present and a possible future – how does this family copes with all?

Synopsis

Adheen is a story of differences in a family. The short story unravels the challenges the characters faced in the past and their stances. Well ,they generally stay apart and they rarely meet with each other. This time they have come together because they got to know about failing health of their dad. I will rather stop here, because everything else about the story should be learnt when you watch the film.

What works

Adheen has yet another great piece of work from actor Sanjay Mishra. He is the central character of the story and does a magnificent job at being the character. Neeraj and Anupriya also have done well in their respective roles.

The better part of Adheen is the story. The story is a almost a thriller, with an interesting ending. I am almost feeling sorry here as I cannot drop any hints at all about this short film. However, I can tell you this much that the characters are not what they sound in the first one or two minutes. As they talk, you will see that characters run deeper when they share glimpses of the past.

Last, I liked the song that plays in the past. Coincidentally, the song is performed by Neeraj who has also played the role of the son.

I also liked dialogues and the setup – the room where the movie is shot is done very well. Small details like Sanjay mixing Tang (or Rasna) are captured well.

What could have been better

While Adhheen is a good short film, it has its own flaws. One, the characters are too atypical. One or two would be alright, but all the four (yes, there are four characters) characters deviate from the society’s normality. In the same family, this was a little too much for me, and makes me wonder if this was done just to spicy things up!

Verdict

Overall, Adheen is a perfectly watchable short film. It is pretty good , in fact. It is just that it does not cut the list of the bests. Also, while we loved the ending, not everyone may like it.

AglaPlay Verdict: Worth A Watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~19 minutes
Writer-Director:  Yash Verma
Cast: Sanjay Mishra,
Neeraj Purohit & 
Anupriya Goenka
Adheen: Short film on familial tensions

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Unarranged ★★★★½

Groom talks with his bride for the first time as he sneaks into her room, as Baarat waits outside!

Synopsis

Unarranged is an unusual beautiful story of an arranged marriage. This short film presents an unusual situation where the groom has come to meet the bride just before the marriage. It seems that the bride’s consent was never taken for the marriage and she is obviously furious over the whole developments. What happens next is a classic take on this unusual situation.

What works

Unarranged has an amazing story line. While we agree that the groom coming to meet bride for the first time just before the marriage is a tad unusual, but that is what it is! Apart from that piece, the whole story flows spontaneously.

In fact, the story connects deeply with the thought processes of so many young couples who decided to tie the knot under the arranged marriage setup. Like the characters in this short film, they also would be knowing little about their future partners.

Unarranged also has very good acting. Syed Shabahat Ali nails the role of the groom. He captures the audience attention and sympathy. Tanya Singh also fit well in the role of bride. We could not find any fault with the other three characters as well.

This short film also has an surprisingly good detailing on the audio. For those who will notice, the background noise fade-ins and fade-outs are balanced very well to reflect the outdoor noise and the emotional timings.

What could have been better

Nothing that we could find on. We really liked Unarranged and there is nothing that we would like to point our fingers on.

Verdict

Unarranged is a gem, and a must watch short film. It is young audience friendly and whole family can watch this short film together. After watching short films like Unarranged, one wonders why Bollywood fails to produce such great content with their huge budgets! But anyway…

AglaPlay Verdict: A Must Watch
AglaPlay Rating: 4.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~19 minutes
Writer-Director:  Rahul Bhatnagar
Cast: Syed Shabat Ali,
Tanya Singh,
Rishabh Tripathi,
Apurva Shukla &
Vipin
Unarranged: A Must Watch Short Film on Arranged Marriage

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Ummeed ★

A short film depicting children as a hope for nature and environment conservation.

Synopsis

Ummeed is a collage of clippings from lives of children in a society. This short film merely picks up few scenes from different situations and merges them together. Mostly these scenes are used to develop the characters, and their conscience.

What Works

Ummeed – The Hope has a nice theme. While the short film falls short on almost all parameters, theme is not one of the faulty areas. In fact, we appreciate the team’s attempt to present the children’s caring attitude towards nature. Hence, the name ‘hope’. That is, there is hope for the earth thanks to the future generation.

What does not work

Almost everything falls in this category. Ummeed- The Hope is, if we may say, a completely hopeless short film.

To start with the complaints, the scenes just fly out of nowhere into your face. The scenes seem to have hardly any connection between them.

To make it worse, the acting is terrible. Now, you might say these are children and the theme is good and we shall respect the attempt – we have done that when we paid respect to the theme. But the acting is pathetic. Agreed that directing children can be a tough job, but in Ummeed, the grown ups act worse!

Another major flaw with Ummeed is its complete disrespect and inconsideration to core story, which is rains. In the story it is raining heavily due to which certain things are happening. However, all outdoor scenes seem to be in a perfectly dry, hot weather with no signs of water anywhere! Such a disconnect shows the carefree approach from the team.

Incidentally, the callous attitude of the production team is not hard to find in any scene. Almost all scenes feel doctored.

Lastly, we must mention dialogues. Now the dialogues are so artificial in the first place and worsened by literal recitation by the actors.

Verdict

Stay away. There is nothing hopeful in Ummeed- the hope which is worth watching. We pushed ourselves to complete the short film and then the review, because we have the job of the critic. You don’t need to give your time to this expressionless motley.

AglaPlay Verdict: Do not watch
AglaPlay Rating: 1/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~9 minutes
Writer-Director:  Aishwarya Chakyadath
Cast: Various
Ummeed – The Hope: A Hopeless Attempt

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