Short films are becoming more intense with every passing release. Short film making is no longer an excuse for not making a feature film – it is becoming an industry, with the technicalities of making films for the digital medium being set out by the bunch of young film-makers who are exploring this medium.

And because laying out technicalities and rules begin by breaking rules, we have Sritama Datta’s Shatika. This is one of the few stories that’d fit right into a mainstream, full-fledged film as well a one-off short for the digital medium. Sritama has opted for the latter, and this is our review of his short film, Shatika.

The short film tells a unique story from a section of the society that we almost always ignore – the street urchins and beggars. A beggar woman decides to gift her mother a saree, which is almost impossible, given the resources that she has.  She decides to take the path untrod and what happens next forms the rest of the story.

What’s Wow: The unique story captures the audience’s attention right from the beginning. The direction is something that brings the story home. Of special note is the art direction. The props, the set direction is nicely done, giving the people an almost first-hand idea of how the poorest of the poor live.

Mainstream actors are really using short films and other digital media to portray a whole new facet to their performances. Sushmita Mukherjee’s performance proves that she has a lot of acting left in her – we wonder why she hasn’t been seen in films more – short as well as full-fledged.

What’s Blah? While the story is good, the direction seems to lack a punch and even lags a bit. All in all, the story seems more suitable for the theaters than the world of streaming.

Parting Shot: Shatika falls in middle space, between the short film domain and mainstream cinema.

Have a point of view? We are all ears! Leave your comments below

Cast:

Lali: Swagata Naik

Seth: Milind Gunaji

Aai: Sushmita Mukherjee

Chinu: Harry Joshi

Dipu: Om Kanojia

Sari Store Owner: Zafar Abbas

Couple Boy: Gourav Khatri

Couple Girl: Shanti Agarwal

Condom Seller: Sai Malik

Casting Boy: Amit

Seth 2: Anand Malviya

Seth 3: Ranjan Barthe

Prostitutes: Sujata

Doctor: Nidhi Arora

Director & Writer : Sritama Dutta

Watch the short film below