Life - Review I

This would the first review to Ankit's short "Life". It gets a little difficult to critique some one's work when he is one of your very good friends. But the best thing I can give him as a friend is a brutally honest opinion. So here goes. 

The project is quite ambitious. "Life" follows the emotional journey of the protagonist over a period of four seasons (though all in a day). I have seen similar attempts at documentation of human soul in a monologue (though there is no dialogue here). The best I have seen is by Korean filmmaker (don't remember who) where the protagonist totally obliterates the fourth wall and directly interacts to the camera/ audience. The biggest flaw of "Life" is that the protagonist seems to be aware of the camera all the time. Ignoring the camera is acknowledging the camera. An actor in this medium should either forget that there is a camera or break the fourth wall and challenge the intelligence of the audience by directly talking to the camera. There is no halfway.  

The depiction of emotions is brilliant. But there are few emotions depicted. All the emotions from solitude to frustration to sadness to depression to ultimately tired stoicism are very well executed. But my peeve here lies with the writing. Depiction of human emotions comes forth best when there is a glaring contrast. All the emotions depicted here are negative and hence loose the bite. If you have seen "Leon" by Luc Besson, you might remember the portrayals of the naïve innocence of Mathilda and Leon was so good because they were painted against a very contrastingly sinister world of New York's underbelly. In "Life" I would have liked to see more contrasting emotions like joy/ hysteria and anger (I would have personally enjoyed to see the frustration in "autumn" to turn more darkly sinister towards anger or better yet depravation). The sorrow of the protagonist would have come out to be more heartbreaking and ultimately beautiful. 

All in all it is a good first attempt. I also should mention that the music selection is really good. Looking forward to seeing Ankit's next project. 

Pranay

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~asto' ma sat gamaya