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Zindagi inShort Review: Star Rating: 4/5 Stars (Four Stars)
Cast: Manjot Singh, Aisha Ahmed, Neena Gupta, Divya Dutta, Sanjay Kapoor, Jiten Gulati, Deepak Dobriyal, Isha Talwar, Swaroop Samant, Nidhi Singh.
Films & Directors: Chajju Ke Dahi Bhalle (Gautam Govind), Pinni (Tahira Kashyap), Sleeping Partner (Punarvasu Naik), Thappad (Vinay Chawwal), Nano So Phobia (Rakesh Sain), Sunny Side Upar (Vijayeta Kumar).
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Zindagi inShort Review: About:
With Oscar-winning Producer Guneet Monga backing the ship, Zindagi Inshort is an anthology comprising of 7 short stories that touch various topics including sexual abuse, domestic violence, cross-border romance, eve-teasing, infidelity and some more. With names like Tahira Kashyap, Neena Gupta, Sriram Raghavan and Divya Dutta associated with it, the anthology is a roller coaster of emotions and will leave you satisfied. This is a platter with versatile elements, that is worth our time.
ZINDAGI INSHORT REVIEW:
Let’s begin with the concept. Hindi cinema is adapting to the anthology format and it is a liberating fact for the audience and an amazing platform for the filmmakers who wish to tell their story in a limited time frame.
Chajju Ke Dahi Bhalle:
The first short from the anthology is Chajju Ke Dahi Bhalle starring Manjot and Aisha. The short shows how finding someone on social media and announcing them your partner even without a meeting is normal these days. The film shows a girl and a guy meeting on tinder and coming close through the dating platform. The day they decide to meet is the part of the story that has left a mark on me for life. What opens up like a normal romance drama ends on a note which will make you skip a beat and it is love. The only things that bothered are the fast face in the starting minutes where the girl installs tinder the very moment her mom gifts one.
Pinni
Welcoming the debut director Tahira Kashyap is her short Pinni starring Neena Gupta in the lead. For the first, Tahira seems to be a director who tries to tell a lot metaphorically in each of her frames. The story revolves around a homemaker who has been restlessly doing the job for years without anyone appreciating the fact. She adds a metaphor, Pinni (a sweet dish famous in the North of India). Everyone only calls her to get pinnis made and no one actually wants to talk to her or even ask if she is doing okay. She has to one day herself ask for it. But Tahira as a director is in full control of her script, while Neena’s character is suffering from loneliness, the script does not portray her as a zen human. Rather she is also shown discriminating between the family and house help. While family gets tea in porcelain cups with pinnis, house help is given a steel glass for tea and no pinni. Smart!
Sleeping Partner:
Punarvasu Naik with Divya, Sanjay and Jiten has given the most hard-hitting short of all. Touching gruesome issue of domestic violence and marital rape, the story stars Divya and Sankay in a loveless and abusive marriage. While the women in the house have been oppressed for years, a predator (Jiten) who is also her husband’s friend to whom he introduced her as his ‘Sleeping partner’ lures her into a facade of love and exploits her. When he comes out in open and it hurts the husband’s toxic masculinity he does what he knows best. This is when we see the flood gates open and Divya standing for herself. The film is an appropriate portrayal of the entangled dynamics and puts us up as the judge to who is correct or worst. This short is the need of the hour and there was no other way to deal with it. Punarvasu, take a bow. Divya Dutta’s acting needs no more validations.