Ashish Pande does it again and makes us, Nagpurins feel proud. After winning 'Best Short' at 'Busan Film Festival' South Korea in 2018, his film 'Nooreh' has recently won the 'German Star of India' award for 'Best Short' at Stuttgart (Indian Film) Festival Germany.
The film takes a dig at volatile situation in Kashmir in a very delicate manner and portrays harsh realities through its innovative script and minimal & simplistic dialogues ... like when a resident says, "Goliyon Ke Nishan Barabar Gino, Varna Mastarji Gussa Karenge..." or when Noor says, "Woh, Muchhawale Fauji Uncle Kahan Gaye?". Besides, the film has a surprising twist at the end which is so essential for a quality short film.
Most importantly, film runs at a leisurely pace, leaving enough space for soaking in the mood of the soul-stirring shots. This is rarely seen in most of today's fast moving films with innumerable cuts. We used to see such spaces in films of old masters like Ingmar Bergman, Anderj Wajda or our own Satyajit Rai, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, G. Aravindan or Mani Kaul. So, in a way, this film tries to go back to the roots and rediscover the treasure of the 'Old Masters'.
Cinematography is absolutely brilliant. Shots of meandering roads and the children going to and returning from the school are simply brilliant. Reminds me of Abbas Kiarostami's films like, 'Where is my friend's home', 'Roads', 'The Winds Will Carry Us' or 'Chorus', Majid Majdi's film 'Color of paradise' and Jafar Panahi's films as well.
The direction is brilliant. Editing maintains smooth flow till the very end while the background score & sound designing is remarkable and superbly adds to the sombre but playful mood of the film.
In short, the film richly deserves its 2 wins and 5 nominations at various International Film Festivals.
My rating: 9 out of 10
Ram Tayade (Deshmukh)
