Nayantara's Necklace

Okay, the message behind this short is definitely worthy, and the story itself is quite good. The execution, however, is faulty to the core. Right from the introduction, the film lacks focus and drags without clear purpose. The story does pick up halfway through, but the duration of the first ten minutes feels every minute of it, which isn't a good thing to say particularly about a short. I wish the director had channeled his attention to the two women and avoided the extension of the already lengthy conversations.

The reason I couldn't afford to skip this one is because of the two excellent actresses, Konkona Sen Sharma and Tillotama Shome. The two play women who are very different - one (Sharma) is supposedly the more outgoing, wealthier woman who leads a financially and personally stable married life. She happens to greatly inspire the other one (Shome), who is more reserved and much less familiar with the ways of the urban world. But inspiration should never turn into imitation, for one never knows much.

Indeed, the climax effectively brings to the fore this very basic conviction, that things are not always what they seem and that a pretty cover can't be used to judge a book. I wish the portions that preceded the climax had been shorter and more concise, this would have greatly improved the rhythm of the story and certainly made it more emotionally impactful. The two actresses are very good in their roles and work professionally to create their slightly contrasting personalities. They deserved a better script though.