Category: Short Film

Ummeed ★

A short film depicting children as a hope for nature and environment conservation.

Synopsis

Ummeed is a collage of clippings from lives of children in a society. This short film merely picks up few scenes from different situations and merges them together. Mostly these scenes are used to develop the characters, and their conscience.

What Works

Ummeed – The Hope has a nice theme. While the short film falls short on almost all parameters, theme is not one of the faulty areas. In fact, we appreciate the team’s attempt to present the children’s caring attitude towards nature. Hence, the name ‘hope’. That is, there is hope for the earth thanks to the future generation.

What does not work

Almost everything falls in this category. Ummeed- The Hope is, if we may say, a completely hopeless short film.

To start with the complaints, the scenes just fly out of nowhere into your face. The scenes seem to have hardly any connection between them.

To make it worse, the acting is terrible. Now, you might say these are children and the theme is good and we shall respect the attempt – we have done that when we paid respect to the theme. But the acting is pathetic. Agreed that directing children can be a tough job, but in Ummeed, the grown ups act worse!

Another major flaw with Ummeed is its complete disrespect and inconsideration to core story, which is rains. In the story it is raining heavily due to which certain things are happening. However, all outdoor scenes seem to be in a perfectly dry, hot weather with no signs of water anywhere! Such a disconnect shows the carefree approach from the team.

Incidentally, the callous attitude of the production team is not hard to find in any scene. Almost all scenes feel doctored.

Lastly, we must mention dialogues. Now the dialogues are so artificial in the first place and worsened by literal recitation by the actors.

Verdict

Stay away. There is nothing hopeful in Ummeed- the hope which is worth watching. We pushed ourselves to complete the short film and then the review, because we have the job of the critic. You don’t need to give your time to this expressionless motley.

AglaPlay Verdict: Do not watch
AglaPlay Rating: 1/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~9 minutes
Writer-Director:  Aishwarya Chakyadath
Cast: Various
Ummeed – The Hope: A Hopeless Attempt

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Wajood ★★★★

This award-winning short film explores emotions of transgenders – the most ignored section of society.

Synopsis

Wajood (Selfhood) is story of a transgender who identifies self as a she. This short film depicts emotions of most sidelined section of Indian society through her. While the protagonist is dealt the wrong cards by cruel fate, she has all the emotions of a normal human being. Like us, she feels hots for a person of different sex. Likewise, she also feels ashamed and bad at being disrespected. Amidst all this, though, she also recognizes her identity and finds happiness in small things.

What Works

Wajood finally fills the gap on honest simple stories about the ignored gender. The short film showcases the identity of the third gender with impact, yet with sweetness. With the very short runtime of 8 minutes, the protagonist wins not only our sympathy, but also our admiration.

Wajood has a pretty everyday story and we loved that. We can easily find the works which talk about the atrocities to present the wrongs done to any group. One just needs to check Whatsapp. However, this short film through its narration takes the audience through a different path. It makes the audience to see through the difference in the thought process between the observer and the observed.

This short film excels also on the acting, music and cinematography fronts. Actors have done a great job, and it is overall, a gem from writer-director Vishal Srivastava.

What could have been better

On Wajood, actually the question would have been “what could have been just marginally better”. You just might be able to notice it in dialogues of the head transgender if you focus, but nothing to ponder over.

Verdict

In nutshell, Wajood is a great short film, and a must watch.

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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6qmspmMvS0&t=50s
Wajood: Gem of a Short film

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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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Silent Ties ★★

A story of brother-sister ties in a little non-conventional setting.

Synopsis

Silent Ties tells the story of a brother-sister relationship. At the same time, this short film tries to touch upon the perception of transgenders in the country. In this short film, the younger brother is a transgender dancer. Her elder sister (seems) to be the only person who has supported him through all these years. Naturally, they share a very closely knit relation. However, the elder sister also has to be answerable to the society at some time. And, that time has now come with the very public recognition of her brother. What will she do?

What works

The short film touches upon two emotional topics. One, the bond of siblings, and another, the society’s stance on transgenders. Since both are very relevant and oft-talked about topic, the audience can understand the content easily. Silent Ties may also resonate with audience on another psychological level of pursuing one’s hobby. Audience may relate to these touch-points very easily.

What could have been better

As said earlier, the audience would be able to connect to the content very easily. However, the connection won’t last for long because of borderline bad screenplay. The scenes jump from one to another without any logical flow.

While I do not want to put any spoilers here in the review, you will be able to see once you watch Silent Ties. In our opinion, the transformation of scenes are forcibly made to fit to the story. The screenplay creates a new bottom with the phone call made to the protagonist by his secretary.

Partly due to the above problems, the actors also fail to inspire. The characters feel too mercurial to feel real.

Particularly, the character of Renuka Shahane is made too unpredictable and unsure of what she really wants.

Lastly, the dialogues are too weak to create any impact.

Verdict

To sum up, Silent Ties is a horrible execution of noble intentions. Avoid and save your eight minutes!

AglaPlay Verdict: Avoid
AglaPlay Rating: 2.0/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~8 minutes
Writer-Director:  Sai Deodhar
Cast: Renuka Shahane,
Palash Dutta

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Ambani the Investor ★★★★

Award winning short film about a determined hard working young school-goer…

Synopsis

Ambani the investor is story of an industrious school-going kid. This short film shows one day in the life of this young chap who creates opportunities wherever he goes. Unlike others, he does not wait for the opportunity to get a job or earn money. This is a story of fighting the odds in spite of obstacles. And, it is the story of satisfaction of long day labor he notes down his earning in his notebook.

What Works

First and foremost, AglaPlay salutes the child actor Master Manoj who carries this short film on his shoulders. Without his acting prowess, Ambani the Investor would have been nothing. From the first scene of seeing his drunk father to the end, his smile and his eyes tell the story vastly much more than any actor could have said.

Secondly, we liked the design of the movie. There are hardly any dialogues, and that adds a lot of character to the short film. In fact, we strongly believe that the short film would have been even better without any dialogues! Notably, even Manoj has hardly 2 sentences in the whole short film.

Third, the screenplay has spell-binding effect on the audience. It also reflects in the viewership of this short film, which is nearing 7 million without any big actor or known names.

Last but most importantly, Ambani the Investor wins us over with the sweet story of grit and determination. Salutation to the whole team for sharing this great work.

What could have been better

The YouTube video’s title ‘MUST WATCH NEVER GUESSING CLIMAX’ has no need to be there. There is nothing in the climax that is interesting or anything. As we mentioned above, it is the flow of protagonist’s day where we are interested rather than the end.

Also, on logically thinking through the movie, you will find gaps and plot-holes. Additionally, you may also wonder when does this guy sleeps. Or, if his school hours are merely 2 or 3 hours long!

Lastly, there is a conversation where the protagonist is compared with Ambani. That scene is, perhaps, the dullest scene in the whole short film!

Having said that, by and large, this is a good movie. Please do not worry about above few short comings.

Verdict

The short film is a must watch. We recommend it for audience of all age, particularly for younger audience!

AglaPlay Verdict: A must watch for Master Manoj
AglaPlay Rating: 4.0/5
Language: - (Hardly any dialogues)
Duration: ~18 minutes
Director:  Vinod Nag
Cast: MASTER MANOJ,
G.MURTHY, KSHAN PASHA
VISHNU V PRASANNA,
PRAJWAL
Ambani The Investor: A must watch for everyone!

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