Aarti Bagdi’s short film Khamakha puts a city slicker in a dust-covered and rickety State Transport bus between Mumbai and Pune. Harshvardhan Rane’s character is forced to hop onto the bus when his car breaks down. He initially has for company rural travellers who can’t stop themselves from stealing glances at the camera. His journey brightens when he starts a conversation with the woman in the adjoining row (Manjari Fadnnis). She insists on speaking in Hindi, and love finds expression at the end of their charmingly meandering debate about language and life.
Fadnnis and Rane, the Telugu actor who made his Hindi film debut with Sanam Teri Kasam in 2016, hit it off very well, and their banter has a naturalistic feel (the dialogue is by Meghna Singhee). The journey ends as warmly as it began, with a song composed by Amit N Dasani and the promise of more such winning slice of life experiences by producer Humaramovie.
