Short Films -- Exploring new vistas

Holi ka Dahan revolves around a woman, who is stuck in a super toxic relationship. She is surrounded by fear of her uncertain future if she lets go of her current situation with her partner. She soon realises that she needs to take a decision

Short Films carry along shorter narratives which are meant to inflict a lasting impression on the audience. In the past few years, production of Indian short films has seen a massive rise. Along with it, they have been addressing sensitive and less explored topics. The existence of YouTube and the recently developing OTT platforms paved a way for these short films to reach a wide audience. Some short films with inspiring women led themes that showcases their lives in various situations are:

The Day After Every Day (2017)

This film by Anurag Kashyap stars Radhika Apte, Sandhya Mridul, Geetanjali Thapa and Aranya Kaur in various lead roles. This film tries to shed light on the grave issues that women in the present-day experience. The film is very powerful in terms of its depiction of the issues. It revolves around sexual harassment and eve teasing. The film is based on the lives of three women and how they talk about their various struggles. The helplessness which they face during such situations is brought forward in a soul shaking narrative. The women in the film decide to protect themselves and take actions against the perpetrators of the crimes.

Juice (2017)

This short film features the phenomenal Shefali Shah as a housewife. The film depicts the life of a woman who has been a house wife for many years now. The film shows the struggle of her married life as she tries to be the best wife and homemaker, the efforts for which are not fruitful at times. The film highlights her breaking point and her frustrations suck out the best in her. Moreover, like any other human being, she has her own issues, her own struggles, her prejudices and her own boundaries. She steals the show with her terrific performance as she battles through her daily married life. Her expressions in the film are one to ponder upon.

Nitishastra (2018)

This film is led by the Bollywood star Taapsee Pannu, who is known for picking up bold roles in her movies. Taapsee portrays the role of a woman who offers self-defense classes to young girls and the film revolves around her life. She is depicted as a woman who is always ready to stand up for women and tries to protect them from anything bad that might happen. However, her values stand questioned when her brother ends up committing a heinous crime. Taapsee is left in a situation where she has to decide either to take the side of her brother or to adhere to her ethics and everything which she has preached and believes in. This film also picked up various teachings from the Mahabharata.

Budh (2018)

This film, which was released in 2018 went on to receive various accolades. The film was also nominated for a Filmfare Award in 2020. The film follows the footsteps of three women and showcases their lives. These three women stand worlds apart from each other but are connected through prejudices, harassments and tortures heaped upon women by society. The film tries to highlight the ugly fact that irrespective of who the woman is, what age the woman is, where a woman is, it is likely that they will face the same physical and mental harassment throughout their lives.

Ghar Ki Murgi (2020)

This film was released on Sony Live and stars Sakshi Tanwar. The story revolves around a housewife of a middle-class Indian family. Sakshi plays the role of glue in her family and the film follows her. She, like most other women, carries out all her work that is expected from a good wife, mother and a daughter-in-law. However, her family does not acknowledge her struggle despite her efforts, which she puts up with without any complaints. The only source of happiness for her is the small business she runs. She runs a beauty parlour. She reaches her breaking point when her husband mocks it. She decides to take a step back which shocks the family. The family questions her decision, and the outcome can be known after watching the film,

Holi ka Dahan (2020)

This film revolves around a woman, who is stuck in a super toxic relationship. She is surrounded by fear of her uncertain future if she lets go of her current situation with her partner. She soon realises that she needs to take a decision. It is on the day of Holi when she decides to cut off everything that was keeping her tied to the toxic relationship. When she embraces the decision of letting go she soaks herself in colour literally as she embraces the colours of Holi.

Devi (2020)

This film was one of the most discussed films in 2020. It revolves around the lives of 9 women. Familiar faces from Bollywood like Kajol, Neha Dhupia and Shruti Hasan are seen in the film. These women come from different walks of life and backgrounds. However, all of them experience sexual violence in their respective lives. They share the same room and lay down their respective disagreements. The only thing that keeps them united till the end is a scary wretched truth.

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