A queer love story, Almari Ka Achaar, wins an award in the Short Film category at the 22nd Indian Film Festival Stuttgart Best Short Film in Germany
The story is about two men in love who express emotion through everyday acts
When filmmaker Raakesh Rawat first read the story, penned by Vishal Nahar, that eventually became his next film, he wasn’t looking for something sensational. His search was for something that felt right enough for him to go behind the camera once again. “I was looking to do something after a long time,” he says, referencing the gap since his 2018 feature Midnight Delhi. “And when I read Vishal’s story, I felt like this is an important story to tell,” he adds.
Almari Ka Achaar, a short film that has just won the German Star of India award in the Short Film category at the Indian Film Festival Stuttgart, is a tender love story between two middle-aged men. The tale is anchored around insignificant acts of love, like making achaar for their partner. “They’re in love, but they’re not proposing to each other. Both characters are so nice, I could feel their intimacy and their innocence when I read the script,” Rawat says. “There’s no big moment. Just those small, everyday gestures: The way they look at each other, how they share space. That intimacy moved me. You don’t see that kind of emotional closeness depicted on the screen any more,” he adds, speaking to us over the phone.
This project, for Rawat, by his own admission, is a shift from what he is familiar with, which was the violent tone of Midnight Delhi. “This was completely out of my comfort zone.” In an attempt to try to do something new, it was this discomfort of the unknown that drew him in. “It’s the kind of film I would never be able to write. So I thought, maybe I should direct it,” he says self-effacingly.
Film-maker Raakesh Rawat comes back to silver screen after seven years
The story follows Prakash and Mohan (played by Manwendra Tripathy and Manoj Sharma), two men caught between the weight of their past, the reality of their present, and the unavoidable choices they must make about their future. “There’s so much emotional complexity,” he explains. “And I related to it as a married man.”
But it wasn’t just about translating love to the screen; it was also about unlearning how we stereotype it. “As a straight man, I had to rewire myself,” Raakesh says. “I realised that I didn’t need to overthink it or try to present it from some ‘different lens’. I just needed to tell it honestly. It’s a love story. It happens to be between two men.”
That reframing of his outlook became essential. “Once I accepted that, everything felt more organic. I wasn’t trying to be someone else. I was just observing people who were in love.” What makes the film even more personal for Rawat is that, along with directing it, he has also shot and edited it himself.
A trained cinematographer from L V Prasad Film & TV Academy, he had previously tried juggling all three roles on Midnight Delhi, only to realise it was too overwhelming. “But this time, I felt ready,” says a now more experienced Rawat. “I’ve done a lot of commercials recently where I shoot, direct and edit —this was a passion project. Short films rarely get producers. I knew I would have to make this happen on my own,” he adds.
Doing it all wasn’t just a budget decision; it gave him complete autonomy of creative control. “Because I was editing, I now had the freedom to go back to a scene and try something new. Nobody was rushing me. I wasn’t aiming to make the best film, instead the aim was to make the best version of this film,” he says.
This also led the film to be unencumbered. The film’s unresolved ending — a powerful moment where one character sits down on the stairs instead of walking away — was not scripted. “I asked the actor to stand,” Rawat recalls. “But in the first take, he sat. It felt right. We felt: This is the real ending,” he adds.
What makes the film worth a watch is its insistence on emotional honesty over spectacle. It’s also why he intentionally included a Bollywood-style song in the film. “Even if you’re not from the queer community, I wanted people to enjoy the film, to celebrate this kind of love. We celebrate everything through films in India, so I wanted to add a Bollywood element while still telling a meaningful story,” he finally says. A little over-the-top never hurt anyone.
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