Shor short film review (spoiler free)

Shor (2008) – A highly interesting, 14 minute length, dark comedy short film by ‘The Family Man’ director duo Raj & DK, starring ‘Gully Boy’ actor Vijay Varma.


image credits - Kolamba Talkies

Shor is available to watch on Facebook. Link given at the end of this article.

Directed by: Raj Nidimoru & Krishna DK (Raj & DK)

Written by: Raj & DK and Sita Menon

Starring: Vijay Varma, Pitabash Tripathy, Alok Chaturvedi

"Sala akkha mumbai mein ek bhi jagah khali nahi hai jahan hum shaanti se ek bomb fod sake. Kya halat ho gaya is sheher ka nhi..." (There's not one empty space in all of bloody Bombay, where we can blast a bomb in peace! What has become of this city...)

Appreciation: Director Damien Chazelle had to make his project Whiplash as a short film for film festivals, in order to get funding for developing it as a full length feature film. This short film, Shor (2008), has all the potential for it to turn into a full length film. It is funny, suspenseful, dark, and has layers of socio-political meanings.

Acting: The characters in the film are young and lay in the boundary of being dimwitted and nihilists. They pursue an unrealistic and dangerous goal, with such serious intention, that the story becomes funny. One of the actors is Vijay Varma (Mirzapur, A Suitable Boy) and the other two are Pitabash Tripathy, and Alok Chaturvedi. Vijay has that hunger and skill in his eyes, and style in projecting the character, that now it feels even more appropriate to see him bag a role in the highly acclaimed film, Monsoon Shootout.

A short film is difficult to make, and these three actors imbibe the characters beautifully, like the actors in Gangs of Wasseypur films. I bring this comparison because of the thematic similarity in story and acting. I imagine that this type of acting makes the difficulty in filmmaking, a fun event. The friendship between these characters support each other’s desire to earnestly up the ante of stupidity, while maintaining their individual style of chasing the same goal with different attitude.

image credits - Kolamba Talkies

Direction and other elements: Directors Raj and DK, build a sequence of events where cuts between scenes are made at such intervals that the film keeps the chemistry of suspense and humor full of energy. The locations chosen for the story keeps the film tightly bound and authentic to the slums and suburban regions of Mumbai.

They tease the viewers with the aspirations of the characters. We gradually wish for their aspirations to fulfil, and this becomes the point of thinking as the film ends. That our own morality can alter its course when we are exposed to a shady but well defined visual information (or rhetoric, as mostly seen in political matters.) This also brings to light, the directors’ skill in engaging the audience thoroughly with the story.