WATCH THE FILM HERE
First, the Recap:
The art of storytelling. When this is accomplished well, a reader or listener can come away with a sense of fulfillment, new understanding, deeper appreciation of a given story’s themes, and, at minimum, the total satisfaction of having been entertained. Then there are the stories as they unfold as told by, oh let’s say, a complete and utter fraud. Sitting in a local burger joint enjoying food and music, Sam (Shardul Bhardwaj) is approached by another patron, Ashwani (Ashwani Kumar), advising him the table he currently sits at was the site of one Shivam Parekh’s (himself) death. Taken aback and set to move, Ashwani stops Sam and proceeds into his tale about Parekh’s passing, though the route to get there becomes a twisting and convoluted narrative of supposedly related non-sequiturs.
Giving account regarding Parekh’s career choice, how it lead him to meet the burger joint’s owner (Jijoy Pulikal Rajagopalan), the subsequent fallout, his connection with one of the restaurant’s employees, Anchal (Kritika Pande), her desire for burgers with no cheese going unheeded, its consequences, the owner’s disappearance, coming around to how Ashwani himself entered the picture, his dealings with a businessman (Devesh Chobe) and mistaken identity, those ramifications, and the final act that sealed Parekh’s fate. As these fanciful anecdotes flow from Ashwani, Sam’s constantly fluctuating state of curiosity, confusion, and total, mystified wonder throughout it all end up leading him, upon Ashwani’s departure, to one hamburger-based conclusion.
Next, my Mind:
Not a remotely typical (or for that matter what would even constitute remotely atypical) project, writer/director Vivek Krishnan’s 10-minute quirky, unusual, and undeniably engaging short film effort will certainly keep the viewer on their toes when attempting to follow its purposely tangled narrative. Filled with the strange, bizarre, surreal comedic execution and decidedly clear messages about pathological liars and the tale tales they weave, the film’s inspiration is also found based on the stories of Israeli-born writer Etgar Keret, whose work this reviewer is admittedly not familiar with and can therefore not directly speak to any comparisons and/or influence found there. Straightforward cinematography accompanies the proceedings here, and the sequences are clear and smoothly shot, given this is a debut effort from Krishnan.
Bhardwaj is wonderful as Sam, the unfortunate chap who gets to be on the receiving end of some serious malarkey. The actor projects this confusion combined with indisputable interest very well, eliciting chuckles in watching him carry this off. He’s the prototypical “sucker” lured in from the start by a master liar. Likewise, Kumar absolutely draws the viewer in as Ashwani, a total verbal con artist whose story gets so overtly over-the-top and baffling that one cannot help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. Moreso, it’s how Kumar enacts how much Ashwani actually believes what he is orating that makes it so entertaining. Solid supporting turns come in from Parekh as the subject of the entire affair, Pande as the object of Parekh’s unvoiced affections, Rajagopalan as the burger joint’s haggard owner, Chobe as the duped, angry businessman, and Anurag Urha, as an ill-fated boyfriend to Anchal.
Outside of an initially brief bout with crude language near the film’s beginning that this reviewer never prefers, “Without Cheese” is one wild, zany, off-the-wall short film effort from film student Krishnan that still very much reflects the young filmmaker’s prospects for comedy efforts in the future, whether sticking only to this genre or not. It is also an example of the very awesome fact that independent film is thriving the world over and signals that we should all be on the lookout for this next generation of artists to start making their marks.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
