Category: Comedy

Harmless ★★★

A girl, looking for thrills, agrees to be kidnapped in a staged kidnapping. This is nothing but a little harmless crime, or isn’t it?

Synopsis

Harmless is a about a girl who is looking for a small adventure trip. She chooses to participate in a staged kidnapping to earn some quick bucks. After all, it is a harmless little crime, with no loss to anyone! The how and what are shown in this short comic-thriller.

What works

Harmless has some of the most unpredictable characters! This adds the elements of mystery as well as (dark) humor. While I won’t spill all the beans, think about a girl who willingly gets kidnapped to get her money from her father! A perfectly nice, working guy who chooses kidnapping to make quick bucks! And so on and on…

Harmless also has some of the good acting. Combine with volatile characters and situations, the quirky acting makes this short film real fun to watch!

In fact, the overall package of Harmless is well-done where it will appeal to the viewers who are looking for a quick distraction from the ordinary!

What could have been better

One can argue that the story is just too uncertain and the characters are too artificial. Honestly, even I believe that meeting such characters in real life is tough, if not impossible. But then, Harmless was designed to be this way.

I would rather point out that the story is too straight-flowing without any major twists and one particular piece seems just too fake!

Verdict

Harmless is no classic, but it is a refreshing change and comic in its own ways. And so, it is definitely worth a watch!

AglaPlay Verdict: Do watch!
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~18 minutes
Writer-Director: Vishesh Mankal
Cast: Vaishnavi Rao, 
Anirudda Khanwilkar,
Goswami, 
Swapnil Ajgaonkar, and
Sachin Singh Khushawa

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Haircut ★★★

A simple haircut proves to be anything but simple for our simple protagonist! How? Simply watch it to know…

Synopsis

Haircut is a situational comedy of a groom who visits an upmarket salon for the first time in his life. Quite naturally, our hard-working middle class hero is feeling little low on confidence. What happens in this short visit of a haircut?

What works

Imran Rasheed is at his natural best here in the central role. He truly excelled in the depiction and transition of character from awe, shyness, lust to helplessness and anger.

Haircut must also be praised for its story telling which could involve so many of the flavors in one single, simple setup. Especially notable is the way this short film could also capture salon-regulars apathy towards the protagonist in such short frame of time. As a result, it works as a perfect break for audience looking for a quick laugh!

What could have been better

While there is nothing bad with Haircut, it somehow feels very average. Except for acting and the story-telling, it is quite too plain and too simple. Also, it has some scenes do not add any value to the story and we believe editing could have been slightly better.

Verdict

Haircut does its job in giving a good quick laugh to the audience with its simple story telling. It deserves a watch, and audience of all age-group will enjoy it.

AglaPlay Verdict: Watch for a quick laugh and simple story
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi 
Duration: ~9 minutes
Writer-Director: Sumeet Vyas and Anand Tiwari
Cast: Imraan Rasheed &
Others
Haircut: A Simple story telling with more than a few good laughs

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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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The Perfect Match ★★★½

A Couple’s ship of love and dating hits the iceberg of Indian arrange marriage. what happens next?

Synopsis

The Perfect Match is the story of hurdles in ‘arranging’ a love marriage. The short film depicts a couple (Riya and Harsh) who has decided to tie a knot. Had it been a western society, they might be planning the wedding location and dates. But in traditional Indian societies, there are a few more steps involved!

This sweet short film elaborates on one of Horoscope matching. While doing so, it also does great job at depicting few amusing character traits of Harsh and Riya.

What works

First and foremost,The Perfect Match excels on its focused execution of the topic of Horoscope matching. Generally such films have tendency to get mixed up with all sorts of issues like caste, religion etc. Accordingly, they deliver on the issues, but totally kill the characters. Worse, they do not give the audience to focus on any one situation and the characters’ stances.

Another great work is the dialogue exchange between Harsh and Riya. The dialogues deliver everything dialogues are supposed to be. In The Perfect Match, the conversations tell us the back story, the current states of mind, as well the ongoing state of affairs. To the credit of writer-director Neha Pawar, most of the dialogues still flow very naturally.

But nothing would matter if the actors are bad. Luckily, the actors The Perfect Match, Ashwani and Kalyani put up a great show together. Least to say, their on-screen chemistry shines through the short film.

Last but most importantly, this short film captures the minutest nuisances of the relationship between a girl-friend and boy-friend. Smallest details on nature, egos, actions and expectations are so marvelously captured!

What could have been better

Some of the dialogues and actions by the leads seem too dramatic and artificial. They are not many, but they are there. If it was an average or a bad movie, these situations would not even be noticeable. Since the overall movie is so great, they appear little out of place. Nothing major, though!

Verdict

Overall The Perfect Match is a perfect sweet little short film which must be watched!

AglaPlay Verdict: A must watch, sweet, situational Rom-Com
AglaPlay Rating: 3.5/5
Language: Hindi / English
Duration: ~8 minutes
Writer-Director:  Neha Pawar
Cast: Ashwani Kumar,
Kalyani Pandit

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Mama’s Boys ★★½

A modern, naughty take on Mahabharata, with Pandavas, Kunti and Draupadi in the 21st century

Reader’s discretion advised. Some of the content in this review and the short film might be unsuitable for younger audience.

Synopsis

Mama’s Boys depicts a modern, naughty take on Mahabharata. The short film starts with Arjun bringing his newly wed wife Draupdi into the house for the first time. Subsequently, Kunti orders Pandavas to share Draupdi among them. Obviously, this puts Arjun in a fix. On one hand, he doesn’t want to ‘share’ his beautiful wife! On the other hand, he is a ‘mama’s boy’ and cannot refute Kunti’s order. Mama’s Boys explores an alternative re-imagination of he scenario from the perspective of Draupdi and the five brothers.

What works

Big budget and strong cast works for this short film. In comparison to new faces, it is proven that watching known faces is more soothing. Scientifically, this innate preference worked for us to progress by stronger social bindings, and to make friends (and enemies).

And this ingrained preference work in favor of Mama’s Boys. From Neena Gupta, Aditi Rao, Arunoday Singh to Razak Khan, the list continues. To tell you frankly, Mama’s Boys becomes borderline tolerable thanks to the star cast, otherwise this would have fallen flat on its face.

In particular, Aditi in the role of Draupdi has good facial expression and appears sensuous as required by the screenplay. Arjun played by Amol Parashar is also good.

What could have been better

Everything else! Just about everything could have been much better. Clearly, the team had no budget or talent constraints and they could have used such talent in much better story. To start with, the whole film does not flow coherently. Instead, it feels like collection of short incidents where you no longer even want to relate to the issue at hand.

Then comes the story. Delhi-Belly fame Akshat Verma has directed and written the short film. I liked that movie and the story Akshat presented, but that skill and the flow is completely amiss in Mama’s Boys. Consequently, the whole short film of 13 minutes (credits of 2 minutes extra) reduces to a random collection of sexual innuendoes.

Verdict

It is watchable thanks to the star cast, otherwise the short film offers nothing new or interesting. 

AglaPlay Verdict: A run-of-the-mill production with nothing new or interesting. Okay to watch for star cast.
AglaPlay Rating: 2.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~13 minutes
Writer: Akshat verma
Director:  Akshat verma
Cast: Aditi Rao Hydari, 
Amol Parashar,
Arunoday Singh, 
Jim Sarbh,
Neena Gupta,
Razak Khan,
Vivaan Shah,&
Others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No6Q5aeTWzk
Mama’s Boys: Big Star Cast with Little Content

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