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Shuruaat Ka Twist Has Some Great Stories & Some Not-So-Great Ones

Despite the inconsistencies, this anthology of short films is a novel idea with some enjoyable performances.

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Shuruaat Ka Twist

SHURUAAT KA TWIST

Hamaramovie, the popular Youtube channel, has an interesting mentorship program where young budding filmmakers get a chance to be guided and trained by the best in the industry.

From their stable, following Shuruaat ka Interval (2014) and Shor Se Shuruaat (2016), we now have an anthology of short films titled Shuruaat ka Twist with big names like Rajkumar Hirani, Vikramaditya Motwane, Rajkumar Gupta and Amit Masurkar mentoring this breed of new filmmakers.

Each film promises a “twist” – an unforeseen turn of events that form a common thread between the various stories. Take for instance ‘Tap Tap’ where we see Chunky Panday in the role of a Bollywood music composer desperate for a comeback.

The performance by Panday, the “twist” at the end, and director Praveen Fernandes’ hold on the narrative ensures we are totally hooked to it.

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Then there is ‘Khauff’, directed by Hanish Kalia and mentored by Rajkumar Gupta. Amit Sial plays a man troubled with recurring nightmares and death-anxiety who visits his therapist.

Fear soon turns into a need for vengeance followed by a twisted climax in keeping with the theme of the anthology.

The best moments of Shuruaat ka Twist belong to ‘Adi Sonal’. Directed by Heena de Souza and mentored by Vikramaditya Motwani, it is a refreshing and modern take on the Sindhi folklore about a wife who waits patiently with her husband’s head on her lap for an entire year to bring him back to life.

The self-assured and restrained performances by Neena Gupta and Lalit Behl is different from the stereotypical depiction of Sindhis in cinema.

The casting is spot on and and one almost craves for a feature length film just to be able to spend some more time with these endearing Sindhi characters.

Another impressive short is ‘Gutthi’ where director Avalokita mentored by Amit Marurkar attempts an interesting depiction of friendship and female bonding between two budding filmmakers.
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Avibu (Merenla Imsong) and Jaya (Veera Saxena) stay together and this closeness and familiarity breeds both contempt and a resolute bond.

Gaurav Mehra’s ‘Guddu’ is about a runaway bride and her “twist” at the end, even though not completely satisfying, is fairly engaging.

The weakest link is ‘Bhaskar Calling’ which has Sanjeev Kishinchandani as director being mentored by Rajkumar Hirani. A comedy about a salesman trying to convince a Parsi gentleman to get a home loan somehow never really takes off.

As sometimes happens with anthologies, the pacing sadly is patchy and uneven. So even though some of the stories are truly brilliant, the not-so-great ones sour the experience somewhat.

Still it is a novel idea and has some truly enjoyable performances.

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