Category: Online

Ahalya ★★★★½

A short film filled with suspense and seduction, with a twist to mythological tale of Ahalya.

Synopsis: This short suspense film opens with inspector Sen ringing the doorbell of Mr. Sadhu. The door is opened by sensuousAhalya. The visit pertains to investigation of a missing person Arjun. Arjun was seen with Mr. Sadhu before he went missing. Does Sen solve the mystery of missing Arjun?

What works: Ahalya is a thoroughly enjoyable viewing experience. Acting by all the actors is very good. The short film excels on direction, sounds, lighting. Radhika Apte looks stunning. I had some challenges with Bengali language but the subtitles are very apt. The editing and the screenplay are flawless and we could not find any scene which felt like excessive or out of place. The whole story runs smooth from one frame to another. The director has managed to weave this tale in a manner which retains sensuality, simplicity and suspense all in one frame.

What is the best: The category where the film stands out is the story. In fact, we have awarded one whole extra star to the review for the story-writing alone! The story has much deeper undertones than what it shows on the surface.

Spoiler Alert: Please read after watching. ShowThe story is actually an alternate rewriting of mythological Ahalya from Ramayana. Ahalya was married to much older renowned saint, Goutam Rishi. She is believed to be the most beautiful dame of the time. Lord Indra of devlok was seduced by the beauty of Ahalya. As the story goes, Indra transfigures into Goutam and involves in sexual intercourse with her. Angered by this, Goutam curses Ahalya to be transformed into stone. This modern day Ahalya shares all the similarities of the older times, but rather than turning into the stone herself for Indra’s fault, transforms ‘Indra’ and other debauchees into stone.

Verdict: A must watch!

AglaPlay Verdict: Must watch
AglaPlay Rating: 4.5/5
Language: Bengali, with English subtitles
Duration: ~13 minutes
Writer: Sujoy Ghosh
Director:  Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Soumitra Chaterjee (Goutam), 
Radhika Apte (Ahalya), 
Tota R Chowdhury (Inspector)&
Others
Ahalya: A Modern Retelling

Glitch ★★★

A ten year old travels though the time to save his parents’ relationship.

Karan is the central character in Glitch. He is a 10 year old boy who accidentally discovers a time-control switch. This time switch can take him across a few hours – not more. The short film shows Karan uses the switch to prevent the possible separation of his parents.

I am going off beat here but the movie reminded me of The Butterfly Effect. In case you had not watched it, try that, it is a good movie to watch. It also reminded me of the fantasy short stories penned by famed director Dr Satyajit Rai. He has written several such short stories. I t would be amazing to see a few of them to be presented in a short film. Bordering on science fiction and sometimes, occult, the stories are just so enjoyable.

Anyways, back to the Glitch that we have here. On the positive side, I praise Shubham for bringing out this experimental work. The story is interesting. well-written. Kabir (Secret Superstar famed child actor) does complete justice toe the role and in fact, he is the one who carries the whole film on his shoulders. You may see the film advertised with Mona Singh’s name but that is largely the marketing part of it. One should watch this movie for the way Kabir carries this whole project through. Highly appreciate Shubham-Kabir duo!

On the not so good part, the viewers may not find the film very engaging or enjoying. But then, experimental pieces like these are not meant to be. And to me, it was a very decent work. Also, in case the time switch explanation is not believable, please read the below.

Spoiler Alert. Best to read after watching. Click to read The whole film can be seen from the view of a child’s imagination.This child has stolen his mom’s ring as a valentine gift to his crush. But he knows he has done wrong and he is worried. Under the shower he thinks of different possibilities and worries if his action will lead to his parent’ separation or worse… He still tries to hold on to the ring to impress the girl (Shruti), but ultimately gives up after thinking though all possibilities.

Overall, worth a watch!

AglaPlay Verdict: Worth a watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~14 minutes
Writer: Shubham Yogi
Director:  Shubham Yogi
Cast: Kabir Sajid Shaikh (Karan),
Mona Singh (Priya / Karan's mom),
Faisal Rashid (Ajit / Karan's dad),
Vinita Joshi (Reena / House help) &
Others
Glitch: Time travel story of a ten year old

The Twist ★★★

A sweet short of grandma-grandson bonding over dancing 60s Twist!

The Twist in the name refers to the rock and roll dancing style. It is the story of a school boy Shlok who loves dancing. His grand-mother was a renowned dancer of her times. She is not able to walk anymore because of fear. Shlok gets invited to perform in annual function by Nadia who wants him as her dancing partner. Sholk is now under immense pressure because he also has hots for her. The pressure is too much for him. The sweet short film explores if and how, the grandma-grandson duo overcome their fears through The Twist!

The film starts at a low-key note but gets the pace quickly. The bonding of the Shlok with his grandmother is worth a watch. The performances are all very good. The nicety is also in details. The opening scene where Gayatri meets with Ritvik has just the right background chaotic noises as it would be in a school. They have acted not only with their faces but through their body languages. Kudos to the young actors and best wishes for the performance!

Now is the time for negatives. It is really tough for us to find negatives in such shorts which are made with so much heart into it, but then that’s the critics’ job, ain’t it? Well, the story is just too predictable. You can simply guess every next ‘twist’ in The Twist. While this treatment makes the story easy on the audience, it also steals the wow factor completely. We also didn’t like the scene of the rehearsals, which looks made-up and synthetic. We at AglaPlay are big fan of authenticity and the rehearsal scenes is borderline Bollywood.

Overall it is worth a watch and a very sweet short film. Do let us know of your feeling by clicking thumbs icon below.

AglaPlay Verdict: Worth a watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi / English
Duration: ~13 minutes
Writer:  Omkar Gokhale 
Director: Suraj Parasnis
Cast: Ritvik Sahore (Shlok),
Sushma Deshpande (Grandma),
Gayatri Salkar(Nadia) & 
Others
Twist: a sweet short of grandma-grandson bonding over dancing

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

The Guest ★★★

A thriller that tells story of a young man asking help from an old lady on a dark lonely night…

The protagonist’s car breaks down in midst of the mountains. The poor guy walks miles to find a town or a mechanic but to no avail. Finally he knocks at a house and the landlady answers.

The camera work is good. Note that I can be biased here. I always like seeing the mountains. I am an avid trekker (till before Covid-19 hit). Valleys with small village houses and greenery around soothes me. It is something with the greenery of the plants, or the vastness of open space, and the smell of fresh air of the mountains or even hills which have this magical effect on me. Many of us, including me have to stay in the cities for earning our bread, but it is always like mountains calling out to me. Here, I will also praise the genuineness in simplicity of the portrayal of a small town home with an outhouse changed to godown – the single flickering bulb, the simple bed with mattress. The simplicity is the beauty of camerawork here.

To really enjoy the short film to its fullest, I will request you to put your feet in the protagonist’s shoes. Imagine that your car has broken down and you are stuck in the situation with no shops or person around. What will you do? How will you manage? The climax will hit you and it will hit you hard if you follow this small advice of ours!

Negative is that there is nothing in the movie. The landlady herself appears after more than half of the movie is passed. The movie could have been half its size, may be, and still would have delivered similar impact.

However, it is a must watch for the end. As you know from above, you can skip first half of the movie without any impact on your experience!

AglaPlay Verdict: A must watch for its end
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~8 minutes
Writer:  Parveez Sheikh 
Director: Ayappa K. M.
Cast: Avinash Tiwari (Stranger),
Davinder Madan (Landlady) & 
Others
The Guest: Mediocre short with great ending