Budh (Awakening) ★★★½

Awakening of three women from different age-group, religion, society and situation!

Review of short film Budh (Awakening)

Synopsis

Budh is a story of three women from different strata of the society. The short film depicts the atrocities brought upon women by men in different ways. Hindu widow Laxmi in remote north Indian village, Muslim housewife Zainab in a town and young christian Yvonne in a city are as different in lifestyle, age and aspirations as can be, yet they all face the tyranny in their own way. Until, finally, they stand up for themselves.

What works

Budh feels very authentic. Especially the opening scenes of north Indian village with Laxmi is done extremely well.

Budh also has great performances. Almost all actors do a very good job in their roles.

But the authenticity of setup and the performances would not have meant a thing if it was not for the hard-hitting story of the Budh. Combining three entirely different backgrounds with one common theme is a good work that is done by the Budh team.

Detailing of the situation and the characters is yet another parameter where the short film does a good job.

What could have been better

Budh is an amazing film. However, if I had to pick out things which could have been done better, I would pick out two in particular.

One, the character of the Yvonne depicting the break-up. To clarify, it is pretty serious and I am in no way underplaying the trauma and the male chauvinism at play here. Yet, this story somehow feels much weaker than the other two. I wonder if a better story could have been selected or it could have been strengthen a little more.

Two, it is Richa Meena accent which does not fit her character at all. The scene involving the outburst of Laxmi could easily have been the strongest moment in Budh. Sadly, it just loses almost all its impact due to complete mismatch of the accent/language.

Verdict

Budh is definitely worth a watch. Though in my opinion, it could have been a much stronger and much more stirring than what it is!

AglaPlay Verdict: Worth a watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~16 minutes
Writer-Director: Prashant Ingole
Cast: Richa Meena (Laxmi),
Geetanjali Mishra (Zainab),
Sabina Jat (Yvonne) &
Others
Budh (Awakening): Awakening of 3 women from different strata of society

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