Auditions are on hold and so, there is a feeling of stagnation: Onir

Filmmaker Onir reasons the intent behind his online short film competition

On a split screen, a young lady and her lover wake up almost simultaneously. Throughout the day, there’s preparation for and performance of pleasant rituals. Symbols such as a potful of kosha mangsho (rich, slow-cooked mutton curry), references from Tagore’s Shesher Kabita, and the woman getting ready hint at their date night. Ekla Baisakh, a short film from Kolkata, ends with the lovers sitting at their respective windows and talking on FaceTime. “The short was sent in under the concept, Border,” says film director Onir.

Onir says he’s received entries from Melbourne, Kenya and London (Photo: Facebook)

Onir’s first week of lockdown was rather ho-hum with food and exercise videos until the idea of collaborating over something creative occurred to him. He, along with his partner Sanjay Suri, kick-started an online filmmaking competition on a social media platform, where topics are declared every Sunday and winner entries on the day after. This is purely with a creative intent. The rules of the game are simple: “You shoot a two-minute film indoors, stick to the guidelines of the curfew -- social distancing and isolation, and that’s that”, he says. “It’s the fifth week now, and I have received as many as 250 films,” the filmmaker laughs in disbelief.

What’s the icing on the cake? Once the contest comes to a close, the Best Director across all scripts bags a chance to work on Anticlock Films’ (the production house run by Onir and Sanjay) next project. Other winner categories will also feature in suitable roles. “Auditions are on hold and so, there is a feeling of stagnation. I am contacted by so many who wish to join this line of work and I thought this could actually serve as an opportunity. For us too, it is a nice platform to suss out talent, especially when we have received responses from Melbourne, London and Kenya,” Onir explains.

One of Onir’s favourite films

The director further elaborates how aspiring directors have explored varying spaces of love. In one short, a man carefully watches another man dancing from his window, but he can’t catch a clear glance as the curtain poses a hindrance. There are no dialogues and towards the end, this dancer realises he is being observed; he opens the curtain breaking into a dance almost immediately after. The film chronicles the gaze of isolation with powerful positioning.

Ask him about any signifying peculiarity in sound given all of us have restricted movement and the director of My Brother Nikhil (2005) says, “Most people have used appropriate stock music, but the beauty of rawness is unmissable. Of 50 to 70 entries for a category, a percentage always accounts for something technically sloppy. The better ones are from individuals who take filmmaking seriously, they study their craft and with easy apps on mobiles they can do so much more. In a way, the roughness is strangely polished.”

Onir’s favourite of the lot is a film by Puducherry-based American-French director Jeremy Carroll sent in for the topic Khidki. The film shows a stressed man writing out notes and throwing paper balls to some place using a catapult. Only later, one such ball is returned to him. He was writing letters to someone in guise.