Fly, Bird

Director Pranjal Dua's 21 minute short 'Fly, Bird' is a moody, at times experimental, meditation on the inertia of everyday living for a young chicken farm boy and a hotel maid. With some beautiful cinematography, Dua's short fails to impress and as I began shifting in my seat to the point of even wanting to check my emails on my phone, I resisted and tried hard to give the film my full attention. Another short opting to work without dialog, 'Fly, Bird' lacks the story-telling skill, direction and potency of its fellow nominee Shekhar Bassi's 'No Love Lost'. At several points through the film, one feels the director relying solely on the cinematography and lighting to create meaningful static shots that hold on the faces of the two central characters but do not deliver, as the visual narrative connecting the scenes is weak. Even the maid's emotional journey of monotony is overplayed in the final few minutes. Some sort of narrative and insight into the all the characters would have helped to make the film, already hampered by it's length, easy to watch.

----------------------------- FLY, BIRD was one of eight short films nominated for the Satyajit Ray Foundation Short Film Award, that I watched on Tuesday the 15th July 2014 as part of the London Indian Film Festival at the ICA in Central London. Unfortunately I can't post reviews on three of the eight shorts: RANI, ALCHEMY & DEVIL IN BLACK STONE as they don't have supporting IMDb pages.