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Devashish Makhika and Rajat Nagpal are on their way to make 21 short films on various subjects. When they're not making shorts, Devashish goes to work at Yash Raj Films and Rajat runs his own production house, The Circus  Motion Pictures.

It came as an email: "watch this film." I hadn't seen Devashish in over decade and even though we are now within communicable distance, I was quite excited about the film.

So, that short film, Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro had made it to the Filminute Festival (The International One-Minute Film Festival) and on everyone's list of top five.

The film is a bit in-the-face if you ask me, and much-needed to break the monotony of shorts that can't seem to get over their obsessions of following people and their lives.

Shot under one minute, the film traces the halaal of a chicken (and of course the filmmakers are vegetarian) from selection to execution, sort of like the last 60 seconds in a cock's life (no pun intended).

And no, it doesn't have multiple layers underneath, unless you'd want to intellectualise it and look for what exists beyond the obvious.

"Rajat and I have been obsessed with halaals for over five years now. The result was evident," says Devashish.

Rajat's obsession with Rahim (the protagonist) is more conspicuous.

"I'd seen the beheading of a chicken in Calcutta and since then, I read up continuously on what this act implicates and wanted to use it somewhere in my work. I'd created a video for Kula Shaker that was dumped by the channel because they found it too gross. Finally this short happened," says Rajat.
 
"We've received different kinds of feedback for the film. While most have gotten it the way it was intended, some actually used it as a metaphor of our lives as well. I guess some people like to add layers to things they see. But it's their choice," he adds.

So Rahim became famous and with good reason. So to those vegetarians and meat-eaters, go check out the film,  on www.filminute.com/2008/screeningroom/index.php?id=21.

It's worth a vote!