SIGMA 51 – A Synopsis
51 Documentary Short Films
- Title : Newton’s Law comes to Life
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This law not only covers physics, but normal life as well. A humor filled short film that shows, how one should always think of the consequences, as they would nevertheless follow; if not directly, then indirectly.
- Title : Childhood Labor
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A film showcasing an ironical view on the the condition of poor children in labor who no longer live their childhood like every other child in the society. Their situation and parts of their life are represented in this short film.
- Title : Who’s listening?
Director Ekta Paneri
Story Line : Day after day, innumerable vehicles add to the traffic on the streets of India, but the more in number, the lesser the people who righteously follow the traffic rules. This short film tries to strongly advocate the issue, by comparing the understanding of a road-side animal and a human being, when it comes to following traffic rules.
- Title : Youth Save India
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : An inspirational short film, based on the belief that one does not need to go fight wars to save the country and become a patriotic hero. One can easily show patriotism in abiding by the road safety rules and thus being saved from accidents.
- Title : Forbidden fruit of Homosexuality
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : People have a right to many choices. Choosing a life partner of the same gender should be accepted as an individual choice one makes. One should not look down, with contempt or scorn. After all, it’s just a matter of choice or preferences.
- Title : Condom Guy
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : A Humorous / ironical way of showing, how condoms as a safety as well as a precautionary way. The movie is shot on a couple’s experience in different situations of life, and how using condoms could have saved them from a lot of unwanted troubles
- Title : Strength of Women
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : Women and how they have taken strong steps in this male- dominated world. This short film shows a documentary on women, who have bravely started a movement, by choosing a field of work which is accepted and suited only for males.
- Title : Fast Life
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Street animals, see and experience the every day growing traffic and pollution. Are they amazed at the advances of the human race or are they disgusted by it? See and decide. This is a photo + movie documentation of the fast life through the eyes of animals.
- Title : False Promises
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : Politics, and corruption has taken its toll on Indians living in small towns and villages. This is a common man’s view over how hyped and false the elections as well as the politicians have become. A tragic ending gives a harsh jolt and tells people the real fact of it all.
- Title : Mess
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : “Use Condom, Play Safe.” A metaphor, presented well in this short film, without sounds, without humans, only a depiction of the idea through a concept.
- Title : Endless Lies
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : Lying and dishonesty, can saves you once, maybe a few more times, but how long can one stretch it and to what extent? How long can one keep on lying, believing that he/she can push or escape from problems by that?
- Title : Greed and Corruption
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : How greedy have we become? What do our children learn from it? How corruption has reached to everyone’s core, is the concept for this film. It constitutes a short drama depicting the theme.
- Title : Power of Courage
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Courage, is all what it takes to be successful in life, even in the extreme of all conditions, which can also include physical challenges. This is an inspirational short film over what makes the human beings larger than life, through a pinch of courage and conviction that they have in them.
- Title : Maa-baap ne bhulsho nahi
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Parents do a lot for their children. Parents are like candles. They melt their lifespan for illuminating the life of their children. But children leave their parents in Old age homes, when they become dependent on them, financially or physically impaired or sick. This film tells people, not to forget parents, as they have spent their life to make you become the person you are.
- Title : Vaarso
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Most of the times it is seen that the habit of smoking in teenagers comes by the influence of their parents smoking habits. In their daily environment, they see smoking being accepted by parents, and that’s how they accept it as a normal thing too. Do we really want our children to learn that? Decide for yourself!
- Title : Fashion hai
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : What is fashion? Is it just a blindly following a trend / person? Or is it something that inspires you? Ask yourself, and see how things differ, just as your perceptions do.
- Title : Stop the free ride
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : An Ironical short film, which depicts the idea that being loyal to your partner is not just a moral thing, but a right and a safe thing to do in todays world, as INDIA has the second largest number of HIV positive people in the world.
- Title : A Primary need
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Human as a social being, needs attention and care of his/ger emotions, more than the food, money, and shelter. A word of kindness and sympathy to a helpless person is the highest of all charity that one can give.
- Title : Broken Clock
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A clock does not stop, even when it becomes worn and torn physically. That’s what life is all about as well. Life means to keep on living, in all struggles and misery and having pride at being alive.
- Title : A human mind
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : What is happening in the mind frame per second? [r1]
- Title : Journey
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : This short film is an inspirational one with the message that do not throw your life away aimlessly, like a thrown can of a soft drink which rummages around all over the place, and thus ending up in worst of garbage.
- Title: Murphy will be proud.
Director: Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line: A Humorous adaption from a well-known law,iknow as Murphy’s Law which states that “Everything that can go wrong, will!”
- Title : Youth and Water
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Youth is flows and so does water . Both can be stopped from flowing and be channelized in any direction. Constructive or destructive. It on you to decide!
- Title : CTRL/ALT/DELETE
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Human nature and computer as an analogy used for an incident. Abig quarrel over a trivial matter.
- Title : Mobile Manners
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Learn mobile manners, the fun way. Learn how ignoring them is going to be worse for you, as well as others. Learn how a small care in this manner can prevent troubles.
- Title : Confidence
Director : Meshank Lakhia
Story Line : In life, everything done for the first time requires a lot of courage and confidence. The reason some learn it late and through the hard way is because of fear. After all, you can only learn to walk if you have the nerve to fall several times.
- Title : Path of life
Director : Meshank Lakhia
Story Line : This is a different and abstract short film, inspirational and thought provoking, which depicts that the path of your life, along with defining and identifying the destination as well.
- Title : Vision
Director : Meshank Lakhia
Story Line : Being blind is not a curse, lacking vision is. Respect the blind people in all fields of life as they have the ability to earn for themselves.
- Title : Don’t erase your lifeline
Director : Meshank Lakhia
Story Line : You, yourself erase your lifeline, while chewing tobacco. Social message said out in a light and simple manner, is what this film is all about. Effective yet thought provoking.
- Title : Load on the Road
Director : Mehul Upadhyay/ Ali Asgar
Story Line : A film depicting the mentality of people to overload their vehicles and thus this leads to the overloaded public transport vehicles on the road. A effect of the population explosion. Think about it- It can be a dangerous and serious issue.
- Title : LOC
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Line of Control. We follow it, but what about our neighbors? Do they really need to be taught a lesson? Or is it something that dogs only do?
- Title : Unstoppable Interrupt
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A panic call of urine and how a person can resolve it ? Ending up in embarrassment.
- Title : Threshold
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Everyone has their own threshold of pain and hurt that one can endure. It’s just about time India realises its own and reacts. The metaphor is depicted in this short film.
- Title : Helmet
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : How a helmet, not just ensures your safety, but also helps you in tough situations. An ironical way of showcasing this fact forms the theme of this film.
- Title : Lage Raho
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : One should keep on trying, until he/she succeeds. Because at the end of the day, the winner is the one who doesn’t quit easily.
- Title : Politics in life
Director : Ekta Paneri
Story Line : Not just politicians play with politics, but simple people as well use the same tactics. Then why they are the only ones who are blamed for it,? Maybe because what they do is seen by all and not hidden?
- Title : Introduction to Ahmedabad
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A tour of Ahmedabad with children,showing the fun,historical and heritage places, as well as cool places to hang out at.
- Title : Hotels and Food Culture of Ahmedabad
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : The Ahmedabadi food culture. A variety of hotels and food across the city coupled with the opinions of the localites as well as outsiders.
- Title : Safe play
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Boy and Girl, sexually excited, play safe using a condom. The metaphor is used to symbolize this happening in this short film.
- Title : Mind vs Me
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Mind controls you or you control the mind ? The contradiction and tug-of-war is shown in this visual argument.
- Title :Do or Die
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A struggle of an ant to get a bit of food at the cost of its life.
- Title : Save water
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line :People waste filtered water, not knowing the value of the same. The same people also pay for such bottled water.In this film water is projected as a valuable commodity.
- Title : Raja ke Rani
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Importance of the girl child in India. Using the metaphors of gamblers.
- Title :Preventive Medical Check up
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A Machine needs service at regular intervals of time So does the human body which runs 365 days and 24 hours round the clock?
- Title : Preventive Health Measures
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : Just like your sofa, your body also needs care. Catch the disease before it catches you. Using of similar metaphors.
- Title :Oh Shit !!
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line :A boy went to his girlfriend’s birthday. There some emergency indulged his enjoyment. Something happened that embarrass him a lot. He tried to overcome but ended up with embarrassment. Kind of fiasco.
- Title : Antyeshthi
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A mythical character warns people not to smoke. People ignore him and end up paying with their life.
- Title : Catch me if you can
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A careless zippy driver. A boy who breaks road safety rules bluntly as if nothing could happen to him thinking himself to be a brave boy. But somebody at some corner is waiting to catch him and make him realize his fault.
- Title :What the TV saw
Director : Girish Kalyanaraman
Story Line : This film is a short imaginary piece, which explores the other side of the usual, by stepping into the shoes of a Television. To imagine what the television would see in front of itself on an average day.
- Title : Igniting the flame
Director : Girish Kalyanaraman
Story Line : The film portrays the life of a little boy who smokes. It contends that it is the society that prepares the crime and the criminal invariably commits the already prepared crime. The film reiterates that a crime is not always committed at the scene of the crime, but much earlier than that, probably by a different person altogether. The scene of the crime is just a manifestation. Because of the cause and effect nature of the narration, the film assumes a screenplay that travels backwards from the manifestation to the ignition.
- Title : Tum muje khun do
Director : Inder Baria
Story Line : People of India have forgotten the heroes of the Freedom movement of India. They just remember them on particular occassion as a formality only.This film projects the idea to reconsider their life and the message they wanted to spread.
- Title : Road Safety
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : How people commti mistakes on the road ? How they violate the safety rules on the road? This forms the subject of this documentary. Road safety is now emerging as new health issue, as the graph of people dying on road is steadily going up. The resolution of this problem is the responsibility towards an accident free society.
- Title : Ram Rakhkhe
Director : Mehul Upadhyay
Story Line : A man lost his money filled wallet in the bus. He tried to chase the bus, running, chasing in an autorickshaw and through various other means.But he ends up helpless and fustrated. Suddenly a miracle happens he becomes happy.
Compiled by Team FTFM and Edited by Shalvi Agarwal