KASHISH 2021 Indian Narrative Shorts (out of competition)    

DAWN  (Bhor)
Dir: Rounak Bhatia / 5 min / India

After the death of his wife, an old man reconnects with his childhood love, will the society accept him?

THE FIRST WEDDING
Dir: Akshay Parvatkar / 8 min / India

The First Wedding is a story about love. Bhumi and Akash fall In love and decide to get married, an unheard union in a world of otherwise only same sex couples. We see snippets of their life through self- recorded camcorder footage, and an interview discussing their decision to fight the system, and simply follow their hearts.

LOVE KNOWS NO GENDER
Dir: Shivankar Arora / 20 min / India

Why there is always a prince and a princess? Why two princesses cannot marry? This short film is about a girl who is set to be married. Following the society norms, she is afraid to tell her family that she loves her best friend, that she is a lesbian. What happens when the news comes out on the day of the marriage? After all, ‘We don’t fall in love with the gender, we fall in love with a person.’

MUHURTORA – BOUQUET OF MOMENTS
Dir: Shivankar Arora / 20 min / India

Sayan comes to Kolkata, a city in India, to attend for a job interview and stays in Dibu’s house. Two friends met after a long time. During the short stay, Sayan and Dibu revisited their childhood and adolescent memories which included physical relationship between them.

MY MOTHER’S GIRLFRIEND  
Dir: Arun Fulara / 15 min / India

Renuka and sadiya, two working-class women in love with each other, enjoy their day out celebrating Renuka’s birthday. After a fun-filled day, they head home to spend the night together. But unknown to them, Renuka’s son, Mangesh, is around. My Mother’s Girlfriend is the story of these two relationships colliding.

PAUL 10
Dir: Sunil Revankar / 19 min / India

Paul 10 is a film of a young aspiring footballer, deeply and madly fascinated with Indian women’s football player Ngangom Bala Devi and dreams of perceiving his career in Indian football team. Paul’s life turns upside down when the football association expels him from the team when a hidden truth about Paul’s identity comes to light. In this process Paul’s sexual identity gets webbed in a seemingly never-ending internal conflict.

SHIVANUM MOHINIYUM  
Dir: Ramakaushalyan Ramakrishnan / 20 min / India

The film is about 2 boys who are left with questions on freedom, religious identities in their childhood the answers to the question is later discovered in the film while they dispute through religion and toxic masculinity in their youth.       

Kabir meets the mysterious Vaidya at a beach on a solo trip. The two fall for each other and Kabir leaves with a promise to come back. He decides otherwise and is confronted by Vaidya in Gurgaon. True identity of Vaidya is revealed.