An Ashvin Kumar double-bill, by any stretch, is a worthwhile addition to your personal collection.
An Ashvin Kumar double-bill, by any stretch, is a worthwhile addition to your personal collection.
Both are short films though one's longer than the other Little Terrorist is all of 15 minutes in length while Road To Ladakh sits pretty at 45 minutes.
The one-disc DVD also includes a Making Of... Segment with each film.
My immediate connection came with Road... which I watched at a screening in 2003 at the British Council auditorium.
I had loved the way the film played out then (as I still do) an elaborate tease that takes you into the minds of two lonely people who can scarce afford to trust each other. One's an enigma while the other snorts coke like it was a meal.
The other, far more famous short, is his Oscar-nominated Little Terrorist. A Pakistani child playing near the border fence strays into a Rajasthani village where a childless shepherd and his wife take pity on him, feed him and in due course, leave him home. The short brought out the capacity for human goodness despite the existence of imaginary lines.
I now hear that Road To Ladakh's being remade as a feature-length film (this time without Koel Purie).
It remains to be seen if it will retain the pleasure one derived from watching the original. Then again, Kumar has not disappointed... yet.
There's also a trailer of a future Ashvin Kumar film thrown in (it's supposed to release, sometime this year). It's a supernatural thriller called The Forest. Hope it's as edgy as these two. It sure looks promising.
Little Terrorist / Road To Ladakh
DIR: Ashvin Kumar
LABEL: Junglee Home Video
PRICE: Rs 125
REGION: Free
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