Film Review (Short): Little Terrorist / Adventures in Shorts (2004)

Little Terrorist is Ashvin Kumar's second attempt at directing a short after the first, 'Road to Ladakh', turned out to be too long for distributors' newer definition of a 'short film' (it was 48 mins in length). The up and coming short film genre was in fact the only genre at the advent of film shown in public theater, before Chaplin and others discovered the longer version. Films were silent and 10-15 mins long. Now, shorts have become the hotbed of experimenting for young directors and the basis of critiquing a new filmmaker's storytelling ability and creativity.

For just his second attempt to be one of five Oscar nominations this year, 2 years after his filmmaking debut with Road to Ladakh, Ashvin Kumar's is quite an achievement. Many wins at other film festivals are also testimony to the quality of this feel-good story, depicting the innate kindness of neighbours separated by fences - fences that force borders between nations. The story is a demonstration that religion and a physical border are meaningless in the midst of friendship and an underlying bond of a community, forceably split by political agendas. Ashvin uses three characters - either very young or very old - to throw us hope with an idealistic story of kindness and friendship. I don't remember Ashvin alluding to the choice of age for his characters in his 'Behind the Scenes...' documentary, but it had to be subconscious at the least - the purity of the untainted youth and the wisdom of a grandfather-like figure are oblivious to the machinations of nations, their politics and their use of commoners as pawns. The film was an adaptation of a news article in 2003-04 that described a Pakistani boy who had accidentally slipped through the Indian border.

Road to Ladakh, the director's first short (currently being shot as a full-length feature) is a far more intense kindling of love between strangers, both isolated in a remote location for very different reasons and whose regular lives seem absent of emotion. Irfan Khan shows us why he's becoming a critic's darling with what we Indians call a strong silent performance. Koel Purie's debut comes off as impressive until we see the documentary 'The Near Un-Making of Road to Ladakh', where we discover the pitfalls it took to get her there.

Adventures in Shorts is one of the most underrated DVD's that I have come across. Not too many people are aware that there is more to the Little Terrorist and Ashvin Kumar than a 15 min film and an Oscar nomination. The DVD itself documents a filmmaker's journey - more real than either film. With the camera rolling alongside Ashvin and his film characters, the story travels to Cannes with Ashvin (captured in the included doc, 'Can You Cannes?) and then to Ladakh for his first short film, back to Cannes and finally to a shoot in Rajasthan that lasts less than a week. Not bad for a Film School dropout who was trying to sell the idea of a short film to anyone who will listen and whose persistence took him to the Oscars. For those who've expereienced a bout of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship, its like being through a series of Film startups with the tidbits of information about Cannes, the amateur actors, the exotic but very difficult locales, the accidents, the improvizations and the wild idea of putting together a very talented team together from a website.

The docs in the DVD almost warrant their own review but it has to be seen in its entire 175 mins to be enjoyed by anyone who loves good film, innovative filmmaking, and a maverick underdog who will do anything to get his film to be seen by audiences - at Cannes and LA, no less. The DVD is also testament to this director's clever ideas of merging good film with stories around the film that truly engage the audience. Keep an eye out for this director - he'll be making news, and more importantly, cheeky and cutting-edge cinema.