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
Girl in Red: Click to play
Gutthi: Click to play