For a cinematic theme explored ad infinitum, one may have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to delineate romance in a fresh, non-clichéd way. Vishnu Udayan’s short film Waft , which has been making waves on the festival circuit, attempts a new-age take on the subject.
Waft revolves around Ashvath and Aradhya, two youngsters madly in love with each other. But after “a particular incident”, they part company in a fit of rage. Aradhya then goes missing one day, turning Ashvath’s world upside down. The “missing link” appears in the form of “breaking news”, unravelling what might have gone amiss.
“ Waft can be called a romantic drama in a nutshell, but it’s more than that. It’s more about the treatment than the theme and that’s the suspense element,” says Vishnu. The premise is explored and expanded using minimal dialogues, leaving “actions and expressions” to take the story (and the back story) forward.
“The film is a shout out to all those who go through loneliness. People are actually stronger than they think they are. Here, we decode why we suffer loneliness in the first place. For some, that realisation comes very unexpectedly, like Ashvath,” says the 24-year-old director from Thiruvananthapuram.
The climax is left “subjective and open-ended”, letting the viewer form his own catharsis. “The denouement works via a simple metaphorical shot, which is part of the 45-second trailer. I have been told various interpretations for the climax and that makes it all more debatable,” says Vishnu, who has assisted in the film Prakasan by Bash Muhammad of Lukka Chuppi fame that awaits theatrical release after its festival run.
The young director says the thread of the story had been in the back of his my mind and credits a friend with fleshing out the film. Durjoy Datta’s novel Till The Last Breath too served as an inspiration. Vishnu, who studied film direction at the Institute of Creative Excellence, Mumbai, says he started doing short films right after school days.
Slated for digital release in December under Green Parrot Talkies, the 12-minute long short was shot in three days in and around Kochi. Mohammed Aftab cranked the camera for Waft , while screenplay and dialogues were written by Aaron Lance. The short film has already bagged several festival awards from around the world for best film, best cinematographer and so on.
Waft will be screened at the Indore edition of Jagran Film Festival and the FARCUME Festival in Portugal later this month.
