<p class="bodytext">There once lived an old woman who thought the sun wouldn’t rise if her rooster didn’t crow in the morning. That’s a familiar bedtime story many have grown up on. What happens when the woman and her rooster disappear? And why does she disappear? That’s the premise of Chidananda S Naik’s 16-minute short film, which won the prestigious La Cinef award for Best Short at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Shot in the dark, the short relies heavily on the glow of kerosene lamps and flaming torches. It opens with a young man narrating the story of the day darkness fell on the village and what happened after — a telling frame shows us wet clothes on a line, dripping water. At a point in the film, the narrator and his father, Mallappa, are shown in the garb of beasts to fend off the wild animals of the dark, alluding to the terrors that darkness can bring, not just in a physical sense but a metaphorical one. The search for the grandmother turns into a device for the young man and his father to examine their own anxieties and fears. Meanwhile, the old woman grapples with her set of demons; her soliloquy is designed like a stage play.</p>.‘Valavaara’ Film Review: Heart-tugging exploration of childhood joys and sorrows.<p class="bodytext">The film ends with the old woman fading into darkness — the transition from a warm glow where we vaguely see her face to a cold blue night of nothingness stays with you long after the credits roll. The short lets you think about memory, erasure, and the stories we tell ourselves — therein lies its strength. </p>
<p class="bodytext">There once lived an old woman who thought the sun wouldn’t rise if her rooster didn’t crow in the morning. That’s a familiar bedtime story many have grown up on. What happens when the woman and her rooster disappear? And why does she disappear? That’s the premise of Chidananda S Naik’s 16-minute short film, which won the prestigious La Cinef award for Best Short at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Shot in the dark, the short relies heavily on the glow of kerosene lamps and flaming torches. It opens with a young man narrating the story of the day darkness fell on the village and what happened after — a telling frame shows us wet clothes on a line, dripping water. At a point in the film, the narrator and his father, Mallappa, are shown in the garb of beasts to fend off the wild animals of the dark, alluding to the terrors that darkness can bring, not just in a physical sense but a metaphorical one. The search for the grandmother turns into a device for the young man and his father to examine their own anxieties and fears. Meanwhile, the old woman grapples with her set of demons; her soliloquy is designed like a stage play.</p>.‘Valavaara’ Film Review: Heart-tugging exploration of childhood joys and sorrows.<p class="bodytext">The film ends with the old woman fading into darkness — the transition from a warm glow where we vaguely see her face to a cold blue night of nothingness stays with you long after the credits roll. The short lets you think about memory, erasure, and the stories we tell ourselves — therein lies its strength. </p>