Shunyata

The most remarkable thing about Chintan Sarda’s 21-minute short, Shunyata, is its completeness. The “void” looks whole. I feel like I’ve seen a lot – and sensed an entire life and full-blooded sub-culture and dimension of a city – in its limited duration. And yet, this is an intimate story. The entire film is shot at night. The quiet score, too, sounds like one that wouldn’t occupy a world of daylight. This suggests the mindscape of a jaded Mumbai gangster (Jackie Shroff, as Madhur) far more than is depicted. It suggests every dramatic and tragic backstory possible, without getting into the mechanics of it.