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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!

Ghar Ki Murgi ★★★½

Seema feels stuck in the thankless ever-ending job of being a housewife… Until she takes a decision…

Synopsis: Seema is a salon owner and homemaker. She manages the home and family most deftly, but her family couldn’t care less. She feels taken for granted, stuck in the thankless ever-ending job of being a housewife… Until one day when she takes a decision which will leave the family in shock. After all these years, what is the decision that made her family recognize her contributions?

What works: The genuineness of the whole setup of the family is depicted very skillfully. The characters are relatable and even at the peak of the selfishness, far from evil. This is so like the normal lives. In our normal lives we hear someone cribbing about a family member or a colleague and on hearing this one-sided story, we may judge the other person to be evil. Many a time, they are not. Many a times, it is the fault of the victim of the situation to speak up his/her expectations. Others cannot guess it! Others may not be evil, and mostly they are not.

The acting by everyone is very good. Such stories centralized on one character engage only the protagonist, and that has happened this time as well. Luckily for us, it was Sakshi Tanwar who shoulders this responsibility with such ease and poise. Other actors however, make their impact whenever they are in the focus. I would like to see these actors more in the coming short films.

The setup of the house is also commendable here and like Juice, the real aroma of the short film flows from the narrow streets, the open terrace and the cramped house as much as through the actors and dialogues.

Last but not the least, in the last parts, there will be a scene involving some calculations. That scene is just amazing! Thanks, Sony. Thanks, Ashwiny!

What could have been better: Ghar ki Murgi is not enjoyable. Period. It is a good short on all angels, as I have blabbered above, but it falls short on the entertainment quotient. Somewhere and somehow, it missed to bring out the impact of the decision Seema makes. End is also not that great in my opinion. The story flows very well, but that engagement with audience is somehow missing. May be, it is because the short film tends to capture too much in too less a time of 17 minutes. Children, in-laws, husband, homework, medicines, cooking, salon-work, milk-man, party-hosting – all of the angels are presented in merely 17 minutes along with the twist and post-twist story, its implications and well, there is also a neighbor chit-chat! I wonder if the short would be a lot more impactful if it focused on any one factor or at most a few and then saw it through. Please note – we are critics and the opinions are always subjective. The film is actually good and please judge it for yourself!

Verdict: Overall, a very good attempt at presenting a homemaker’s life. On parental guidance, we will in fact recommend it to be shown to children who can be more thankful for the tasks they may otherwise take for granted.

AglaPlay Verdict: Please do watch with your family!
AglaPlay Rating: 3.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~17 minutes
Writer: Nitesh Tiwari
Director:  Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Cast: Sakshi Tanwar,
Anurag Arora, Mahi Burman,
Kabir Khanna &
Others

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D567scaLR6 s

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

Girl in Red / Gutthi ★★½

Lives of a writer, a garbage collector and a girl are intertwined and lead to an atrocious crime.

Why the slash (/) : Today we are writing the review of two short films who are essentially same vodka in different bottles. We thought to bring these two together, discuss their respective strengths and let the reader decide!

Synopsis: There is an author who wants to write a thriller, but has hit writer-block. He is not able to spin anything new. In this anxiety, his attention turns towards his building’s dustman who also runs all kinds of odd jobs including delivering weed to the flat owners. This dustman is also borderline pervert and skims through all the waste items people throw out, in turn getting evidences of all the gossips of the building. While they bond over marijuana-puffs, the author talks about a girl who was murdered brutally. Is anything common between these three characters?

Story and Screenplay review: The story is not bad. It is just not great, either. Perhaps it is also the treatment of the story that borders on tough to believe scenario. Some vital pieces of the puzzle are also missing, and at times are in contradiction to each other. Screenplay is jumpy at times and especially for ‘Girl in Red‘ version, misses some important scenes which provide justifications to WHYs.

What works for Girl in Red (GIR): Between the two versions, GIR is the newer one, with latest editing, clearly has higher budget and much higher viewership. This is the ‘urbane’ version, and looks pleasant due to better quality (costlier) equipment and setup. Narrative by protagonist sounds better. The language is closer to the normal, north Indian Hindi.

What we didn’t like in GIR: Too many expletives and obscene words without any need. Most of the times they do not even suit the context. Some modifications that are made from earlier version Gutthi are ridiculous and unconvincing. The actors almost look like models which makes the short further contrived.

What works for Gutthi: Gutthi, the original older version is overall much more realistic and credible. There are hardly a few loopholes and the flow is more justified. The actors are suited to the role. Simple faces, day-to-day attires. Even the libraries and the flats look close to the life of an author. This is our preferred version.

What we didn’t like in Gutthi: Practically everything that we liked in GIR. Everything that money can buy – the look, the picture quality etc. Gutthi has that old, low budget camera look, has grainy video and the special effects are basic. It is also ten minutes longer than GIR.

Verdict: Overall an average, the story is worth a watch with all its loopholes. We liked Gutthi version more its more credible story telling, but GIR version is newer and it just the better-looking version! You choose!

AglaPlay Verdict: Average
AglaPlay Rating: 2.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~17 minutes (GIR), ~27 minutes (Gutthi)
Writer: Abhishek Chatterjee
Director:  Saurabh Varma (GIR) / Abhishek Chatterjee (Gutthi)
Cast: 
Cast of GIR: Nandish Singh, 
Rohit Khurana, 
Nazia Davison  
Cast of Gutthi:
Rathna Shekar Reddy, 
Choeeta Chakrabarti, 
Naren Yadav

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…