In Abhimanyu Kanodia’s Christmas-themed fairy tale Jangle Bells, a grumpy and lonely corporate Grinch who cannot get the point of festive cheer finally comes around to cracking a smile and even bursting into song. Who, or what, lights his fire?
Monali Thakur, the singer and occasional actor, is perfectly cast as Namit Das’s singing neighbour. As Thakur belts out one classic Hindi song after another, including her hit track ‘Sawaar Loon’ for the movie Lootera, Das uses his expressive face to make his character come alive. The short celebrates the power of Hindi film songs to create connections, but Kanodia needed to have tossed a few more ideas into the sack to justify the running length. Even at just 14 and a half minutes, Jangle Bells feels stretched. Its central idea is the best thing about it: stop griping, start singing, and everything will be better.