Special Day ★★★

A mother’s gift to her son on his birthday is worth much more that it looks to be.

Synopsis

The short film about mother-son relation of Ved and his mother. It is Ved’s birthday today. Certainly this is going to be a great day! Not only his friends have planned a surprise but his mother has bought a small special gift for him.

The short film explores the emotions behind this small gift. While these emotions are certainly not small, would Dev figure them out? Spoiler: he does – not really a spoiler there :), but do watch to figure out why and how was the gift valuable!

What works

The raw charm of a simple, uncomplicated story-telling works for Special Day. Sheeba-Shantanu duo portrays the Mother-son relationship elegantly. The emotions flow through the film as choreographed to a perfection. Many a stories fall into trap of being too emotional. Many a times, they also delve too much into the sacrifices. Very often, relationships are pictured as a combination of burden and sacrifices. It is so entrenched in Indian culture that the natural love takes a backseat.

Special Day reminds us that the beauty of a relationship or care for someone else. Such care can often be totally insignificant to a third person. Malti’s gift to Ved is something money can buy and she can definitely afford it. At least, that is what his friends can judge the gift to be! But Ved knows better and acts on it leading to one of the cutest endings in a short film.

The short film does well on other technical prospects, too. Cinematography, music, lighting, and setup are all done well. Screenplay and dialogues are also done well.

What could have been better

The scene where Ved meets is with his friends in the car (it happens around 5:50 in the movie). Ved’s friends behave in a much too animated and unrealistic manner. That whole scene is a bit let down from the amazing central story. Although I can provide a list of problems with this scene, that scene is anyway very small turbulence in this otherwise cozy flight.

Verdict

A good short film worth a watch!

AglaPlay Verdict: Worth a watch
AglaPlay Rating: 3.0/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~10 minutes
Writer: Prativa Archana Rathi
Director:  Ajay Shivan
Cast: Sheeba Chadda,
Shantanu Maheshwari &
Others
Special Day: Sweet short on Mother-Son bonding

Click here to check our short- films recommendations!