Not knowing the history of events surrounding the aftermath of the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984; this short made for an interesting peek into what might have happened to one little boy called 'Kush' on his way home from a school trip with classmates. I think interesting is at best the word that one could use with this short film as it takes us along a somewhat predictable journey when it comes to story-telling. The tent poles of the three-act structure are observed with a dash of unrelated world cinema and a couple of inexcusable contrivances that stick out at you immediately to the point of distracting you as you think 'Where did he get those scissors?' and 'Convenient that a slang conversation was over heard by one of the kids.' I suppose this could be attributed to director Subhashish Bhutiani's melodramatic/art-house Indian cinema roots and his acquired 'film education' in New York. At this point I should mention that it won the Best Short Film at Venice 2013 and was long-listed for an Oscar for Best short. However, it is best to look past that 'hype' and see the film for what it is. The director does well to keep the acting reins in the hand of his adult actors and limit the child actors from spouting structured dialog and giving them a couple of improvisational moments. The bus driver played by Anil Sharma is very watch-able and gives a nuanced performance. The cinematography and style is conventional and does the job. Apart from the predictability and contrivances, it is the attempt at being unassuming with his ending/twist/reveal in a very obvious way that takes away from the joy of enjoying what could have been a great short film.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- KUSH 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.