Still frames, pensive silences and two open windows constitute the soul of Khidkee, a masterful short film by Mumbai based director, Rohan Kanawade.
If you have lived in a crowded city, you are very familiar with spaces that are not exactly private - homes that awkwardly peek into one another, offering enough glimpses to spark your imagination about the people who might live there, but never enough to offer any insight - personal or real. This voyeuristic side of Mumbai's urban middle class lifestyle builds Khidkee's tense narrative that teases, and tempts the characters and audience alike.
Who are these men that visit her so often? Why does a scruffy young man drink all day? What are silhouettes telling you and what are they hiding? The characters yearn and the audience learns.
As a viewer, you hear both sides of the story and wish you could step in and clarify, or help. The tension, the anxiety, the uneasiness, engulfs you to a very potent climax ably held together with sharp editing and ambient music that build to the crescendo.
Actors Veena Nair and Lalit Prabhakar lend credible performances to their very real and relatable characters, and Abhay Kulkarni does a terrific job in a difficult role.
Rohan Kanawade's success lies rousing the curiousity of the audience and making them wonder what if... and as the credits roll you will find yourself asking, how many such loaded perceptions you may have had in your life.
Step out of your Khidkee. There is a lot, you don't know!
Update: Khidkee is screening in the Indian competition section of the Mumbai International Film Festival #MIFF on Thursday, February 01, 2018.
Watch the trailer here:
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