Category: Comedy

Station Master Phool Kumar ★★★

Phool Kumar is frustrated when he is transferred from busy station Gorakhpur to a small town Kesupur.

Synopsis

Station Master Phool Kumar is the story of Phool Kumar. Phool Kumar was a star performer in his earlier role as signal operator at busy Gorakhpur Junction. As recognition of his performance, he is promoted to the post of station master of small station Kesupur. There is hardly any work here for a station master with only 2 daily trains. Phool Kumar gets bored, he starts acting weirdly. As a result, both his colleagues start worrying about him… This is all until someone catches his attention. Who is she? Does the story has a happy ending?

What works

The story is not about Phool Kumar alone. The story is of so many young migrants around the world who leave their hometown, their friends and families for a career progression. It is the hence, the story of the their loneliness in the foreign land.

The short film is also the story of the mismatches between promotional aspirations and reality. Phool Kumar shows extreme adverse post-promotion effect when the promoted misses his actions are previous lower role. Lastly, this is also the story of a young guy who meets a beautiful girl. Depicting all these seemingly complex and deeper contexts coherently in 12-minute short film is where it shines.

Namit Das and Rajkumar act extremely well. But then, we cannot expect anything short of perfection from them anyway! Annsh also brings out the innocence in her character.

Another delightful part is the whole setup of small railway station, which is designed very realistically. In fact, I almost mistook it for a real railway station until I checked it to be Panvel’s film studio. Papon has lent his voice for the song ‘Dhokadhari’ which is pleasant on ears.

What could have been better

The focus of the story completely moves to a boy-girl story after Phool spots Asha. Now, we may be acting pedantic here, but this is something that we didn’t like much. Apart from that, no deal breakers.

Verdict

Not great, but deserves a watch.

AglaPlay Verdict: Deserves a watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~12 minutes
Writer: Ambar Chakravarty
Director:  Ambar Chakravarty
Cast: Namit Das (Phool Kumar),
Rajkumar Kanojia (Cleaner) &
Anssh Shekhawat (Asha)
Station Master Phool Kumar: Worth a watch!

Click here to check our short- films recommendations!

Bharam ★★★

A comedy of prejudices starts when Janaki wins a Mercedes but everyone loses with their assessments of other.

Synopsis: There is a person who is standing at Janaki Paul’s door. He has supposedly come to deliver Mercedes car which Janaki won in some lucky draw, but Janaki’s maid won’t let him in nor will allow him to talk to her employer. But this guy is equally stubborn… What is the catch? Why are they behaving so stubbornly and illogically?

What Works: The biggest strength of this short is its length. The director manages to tell the whole story in meager six minutes if we ignore the credits. I appreciate the whole team which stuck to a really short story and gave it just enough time for the characters and situations to sink-in.

The story also aces the test of time. The prejudices brought up by the story are very relevant to today’s world. Most of the audience would connect with the characters’ feeling and judgements. The actions, well, they are exaggerated! But then, how will comic and scare will come up in otherwise everyday story?

Areas of improvement: For the corporate workers out there, yes, I have taken this phrase straight out of my annual appraisal. In case you ask, my manager just couldn’t find anyhthing to fill in this section – I AM PERFECTO! 🙂 Okay, just kidding! Serious now, the issue with the short is its predcitbility. On the first scene itself you will have some idea where the film will move to. Apart from that, nothing much. And please note, it is still enjoyable short break from our mundane lives!

Verdict: A one-time watch!

AglaPlay Verdict: One time watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi / English
Duration: ~6 minutes
Writer: Shieladitya Moulik
Director:  Shieladitya Moulik
Cast: Anuradha Mukherjee
Kan Singh Sodha
Bharam: A 6-minutes long short film

Khujli ★★★★½

A sweet romantic tale of a couple married for long. Love is not lost between them, neither has…

Synopsis

Khujli is a soothing heart-touching tale of a couple who have grown older together. They are normal John and Jane who have spent a normal life with normal things. In a sudden twist, the husband finds out that wife is not as sweet and innocent as he thought her to be. This beautiful short film depicts that twist!

What Works

Firstly, on-screen chemistry of Neena Gupta and Jackie Shroff is just amazing. The acting could not have been better!

Especially, the nuisances and the shocks are so life-like! Kudos to writer-director Sonam for bringing this story which borders on kinkiness but delivers with such sweetness.

While many stories talk of love in long term relations, few talk of the longing lust. Moreover, even fewer manage to tell it with the beauty Khujli does. By all means, sex is itself a taboo in Indian society. For this reason, it is regularly scorned, frowned and laughed at, given the situation and the audience. In the land of Kamasutra and nation with the fastest growing population, the treatment is anything but strange.

One may believe that the situation would be different on internet where everyone has a veil, an anonymity… But sadly, even when has anonymity and censor-free medium to release bold content, many a times even best of the directors translate it to pure-play skin show, or try to sell mediocre material after quoting it with sensuality and at times, perversion. We hence respect Khujli‘s team in bringing this out with such sweetness! Thank you, Ms Nair!

What could be better

Generally speaking, there is no negative on the film from AglaPlay’s end. Please let us know if you didn’t like something!

Verdict

To summarize, this is a must watch! There are explicit references to BDSM: parental guidance is recommended.

AglaPlay Verdict: Must watch
AglaPlay Rating: 4.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~14 minutes
Writer: Sonam Nair
Director:  Sonam Nair
Cast: Jackie Shroff, 
Neena Gupta &
Others
Khujli: Scratching 25 year old khujli in relationship…

Click here to check our short- films recommendations!

Golden Crush ★★★½

A sweet comedy. A young guy is scared out of his wits as his father catches him smoking cigarette.

The title refers to the last few drags from a cigarette. Aptly named, the short film involves a young guy who get caught smoking by his father. The young college goer is terrified and breaks into tears as his father probes him. The two talk and mutually come to some decisions which may change both their lives for good.

The short film is really done well with very mature and clever writing. Kudos to Omkar Gokhale for this beautiful script and the unexpected twist in the end.

Father-son dialogue is the soul of the short film. It is very normal to the fathers and sons to drink and smoke, but not in front of each other. People sometimes go to extents to hide it from their families, as if there is something gravely wrong about the act. I hereby want to clarify that I am not praising the smoking and drinking. It is just that when you have to hiding acts which you love to do, from the people you love may take its toll on one’s happiness and even, their confidence. Golden Crush attempts to find another way out of this conundrum through the conversation between the central characters.

For negatives, there is nothing major. Few viewers might have challenge with Marathi, but the subtitles provided are perfect. you do not need to depend on YouTube generated ‘Closed Captions’, which are just irritating at times… ugh! If I go all out for fault-fidning, photography is a division which could have been a little better, but nothing that is deal-breaking.

Overall, a must watch! I believe that ‘Golden Crush‘ is a very good attempt and all age groups will enjoy it. However with the smoking involved, we are not tagging this one under ‘Young Audience Friendly’.

AglaPlay Verdict: A must watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.5/5
Language: Marathi with English Subtitles
Duration: ~9 minutes
Writer:  Omkar Gokhale 
Director: Suraj Parasnis
Cast: Sandesh Kulkarni,
Shivraj Waichal & 
Others
Golden Crush: A sweet Marathi Short

Tindey ★★★★½

A hot and sweet take on extra-marital misadventures of a man in his 40s.

Synopsis

This film is about the misadventures of a middle aged man, Kranti. A faithful husband, Kranti somehow gets lured into exploring dating app Tinder Tindey by his colleague. On the other end of the app is a suave, hip gal in her 20s, Molly. Somehow, the chemistry clicks and…. well… I will hold the synopsis here. Saying anything extra may just ruin it a bit for you because this one, is hilarious.

What works

This one is an absolute must watch. The theme which seems so generic has twists and turns which are done very different than other attempts on similar topics. At least, the ones I have watched or read. Tindey strikes just the right balance between comedy, emotions, dialogues, presentation – just everything seems perfect about this one! The short duration format also helps Tindey, as the full length feature films fall in the issues of extended emotional scenes (and songs). Tindey perhaps is able to maintain the balance because there was not much time… Perhaps!

On acting front, the leads have done a tremendous job, but any review would be incomplete without praising Ashwini Kalsekar (Mrs. Kranti). From the first scene to the closure, she is just splendid. Great job there!

What could have been better:

None.

Verdict

Must watch. Except for references to online dating format and the usage of app by married people, the film is suitable for all age groups subject to viewers discretion.

AglaPlay Verdict: Must watch
AglaPlay Rating: 4.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~20 minutes
Writer: Seemaa Desai
Director:  Seemaa Desai
Cast: Rajesh Sharma,
Ashwini Kalsekar,
Adah Sharma,
Mukesh Bhatt,
Abhishek Khanna

Watch now!