A typewriter falls in love; a fashion show gets an unanticipated audience; a young boy tries to save his favourite rooster; a ghost possesses housewives. Each of the four short films selected for the second edition of the MAMI Select – Filmed on iPhone programme are out on YouTube.
The short film initiative is the brainchild of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image, which is behind the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. This year’s edition has been mentored by Konkona Sensharma, Vetri Maaran, Lijo Jose Pellissery and Vikramaditya Motwane. As per the conditions of the programme, the films have been made with the help of a grant, shot on iPhone 16Pro Max phones and edited on MacBook Pro.
In Rohin Raveendran Nair’s Kovarty, mentored by Pellissery, the typist Daisy gets a most unusual suitor: her typewriter. Through the anthropomorphised object, Kovarty examines obsolescence and rebirth.
Haute couture meets ancient horrors in Amrita Bagchi’s Tinctoria. Mentored by Vikramaditya Motwane, Tinctoria looks at a fashion designer’s effort to exploit the distressed chic surroundings at an indigo factory. The ghosts of the past add uninvited atmospherics to the proceedings.
Shalini Vijayakumar’s Seeing Red, mentored by Vetri Maaran, also has a supernatural element. A female spirit possesses the women in a traditional household, leading to mayhem – and self-expression.
In Chanakya Vyas’s Mangya, mentored by Konkona Sensharma, a boy resists the demand to cull his favourite rooster.
