A father and daughter spend some time bonding, but all is not what it seems in the dark short film Monster from director Rahul Nath. Check out our review.
Inspired by the short story The Violinist by Christopher Kai, Monster tells the tale of man and his pre-teen daughter spending some quality time together in the garage of a building. Sounds fun, right? Well, this is one Daddy and Daughter day you would want to stay well away from.
After driving the family vehicle into the garage and waiting for his daughter (Sara Patkar), who is asleep on the back seat, to awake from her afternoon nap, the Dad (Amit Sial) puts on a rain mac and gives a similar garment to his little girl to wear too. Whilst the dialogue between the two is playful and loving like normal conversations between a parent and their child, there is a sense of something dark beneath the surface. Straight away, the viewer gets an eerie feeling that something is just not quite right with the picture, and that’s not taking in the fact that the short film is called Monster.
You see, the father and daughter aren’t the only people in the garage. There is another man in the trunk of the minivan, tied and gagged. Straight away, you just know something awful is going to happen to the captive, especially when the father and daughter start to guess on the toss of a coin as to who gets to go first in whatever they are about to do.
I won’t go into the plot any further so to not give anything away, but I found the twist a good and fresh take on an old, world-famous tale.
Monster is beautifully lensed by Yuvraj Jadeja. He makes the most of the small location by utilizing wide angle lenses alongside some terrific slow-tracking dolly shots. This combined with great lighting and great work in grading by colourist Goran Todoric makes for an aesthetically pleasing short film. It really does look great.
I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing quite a few short and feature films from India, and they seem to be getting better and better. Monster only has a runtime of just over ten minutes, but it shows much potential for a feature based on the two main characters. If Rahul Nath manages to get such a film off the ground, it could be a huge shot in the arm for the Indian film market on a global scale, which I’m sure you will agree, is a fine thing indeed.
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