INDIAN NARRATIVE SHORTS (Non-Competition)

MUMU SHELLEY
Dir: Batul Mukhtiar / 50 min / 2021 / Featurette / India / English

On a promising evening Shelley, a young, small-town lesbian with a blinding fascination for the ‘cool’ American life; unexpectedly gets stuck with a middle-aged, neurotic home-maker Mumu, her lover’s older cousin. As the evening keeps slipping into night, the two women bond; challenging their well-guarded beliefs, and face the reality of their lives that they have been trying to overlook for so long.

1947. At the edge of the partition of India narrated through a letter, the story of longing for a relationship between two queer women that is doomed in several ways – their love misunderstood, the patriarchy shackling their dreams and their romance split at heart by the partition and inevitable separation of them.

Both fall prey to patriarchy, in an arranged marriage, on their wedding day, just prior the ceremony, the groom comes out to his would be bride that he secretly dresses cross.

Shekhar is coming home from America after four years; his family is waiting for his arrival, and are very eager to convince him to get married this time. But his friend has a different thought.

The story revolves around Anish, a common man with a painter inside of him, his wife Amrita and a stranger Anish meets one day while searching for Yellow Roses.

Inside an old hamam, now set up as a modern spa, the masseuse Avani reflects her long gone brother Shantanu. She touches his body and senses a heat, the same fever that she had felt on her brother’s corpse.

Stuck in a week-long institutional quarantine, Nidhi finds comfort in a charming stranger next door.

THE CARESS
Dir: Bhargav Lahkar / 15 min / 2022 / Narrative Short / India / Assamese

A middle aged transman crosses path with an old lover and share a dinner together that heals the resentment between them and frees both of them from regrets.

This film is being made under the KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant 2021

For years Amit has kept his relationship with Abhay, a secret from his mom. After being given an ultimatum by Abhay, he finally musters courage to come out to her but totally unsure how will she face his truth!

A challenging day in the lives of a couple filled with hardships and humiliation finally culminates on a sweet note.

Placed amidst the pandemonium of the recent pandemic, The Sorrow of Love is about those who have departed, and also about those who are left behind… to mourn or to gather their wits to start afresh.

A small, non-descript bra shop tucked away in the lanes of a crowded Chandni Chowk turns into a venue for celebration in the lives of motley group of women, as they begin to discover themselves, and start forging beautiful bonds of friendship.