Friday, July 17, 2009

ROAD TO LADAKH (Short Film) (2003)

In 2002 a young Indian film maker of Delhi visited Cannes Festival first time to get financial assistance and willing crew who love to work for his limited budget film. He didn’t get success. Without being dissipated he just googled and get the professional and talented crew from European countries willing to join freely which made him possible to complete this 45 minutes short film. Three years back its moment for Writer-Director Ashwin Kumar when he got Academy Nomination for his debut short film ‘Little Terrorist’ in 2005.

It’s mysterious tale of a feisty fashion model who got crush on a mysterious stranger during her road trip to Ladakh. The first 30 minutes were almost shot in ‘Road Movie’ with minimal conversation between the lead pair of Irrfan and Koel Purie, the rest of the climax is also predictable but not mediocre one. The most striking and strong point of the film is its beautiful and captivating cinematography by Markus Huersch portraying the heavenly landscape of Leh-Ladakh pass.

The film was shot just in 12 days with such a limited budget that all the cast and crew of the film including Irrfan and Koel Purie not only contributed their skills freely but also funded their travels to be apart of this film. There’s an intimate love making scene between Irrfan and Koel which is not titillating one but significant part of the script. Koel hasn’t performed something exceptional but Irrfan is again impressive with his vivid realistic tense expressions. The ending part is undoubtedly the most powerful scene of the whole film and that’s one more reason to watch this honest attempt of Ashwin.

Ratings- 7/10

P.S. - I’m eagerly waiting for Ashwin’s forthcoming thriller ‘The Forest’, starring Jawed Jaffri and Nandana Sen after watching its pulsating trailer. One can possibly catch it on ‘You Tube’ and I assure you it’s 100% better film than Ramgopal Verma’s ‘Agyaaat’.

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