Review – Freedom at Midnight – Written and narrated beautifully

Anupama Parameswaran is doing some different stuff these days and for the first time, has done a short film called Freedom at Midnight that deals with the issues of a married couple. The short film is getting a lot of attention and we bring you a detailed review of this short for our readers.

Plot

The short film is based in Kerala and is dubbed in Telugu. Chandra played by Anupama Parameswaran is quite upset about an issue and wants to confront it with her husband. She starts on a very simple note and shocks her husband by saying that she dreams of having sex with a stranger on a hilltop. This crazy revelation by Chandra shocks the husband Das(Shahjahan) and there erupts a big fight. Why did Chandra take such a crazy decision forms the crux of this short film?

Performances

Anupama Parameswaran is the major attraction of this short film. She is so naive as Chandra who is quite upset with the way her husband is treating her. The guilt and pain that she is going through, Anupama brings it out so candidly. There are a lot of single takes and the young actress does all this with aplomb. Das aka Shahjahan is also very impressive as the husband. The way he goes doubting Anupama and asks her weird and uncomfortable questions is so good to see in the short film. There are only two characters and each other shares very good chemistry.

Analysis

Freedom at midnight is a short film that brings out the issues of a married woman. The whole concept of the short film is to show how bad does a woman feels when a husband dreams about someone else in bed. This concept has been shot and conceived in a beautiful manner. The short film starts off with Anupama consulting her friend whether to ask her husband about all this on his face.

Then the scenes of husband and wife arguing are showcased so aesthetically. The manner in which her husband confronting her why she is thinking in such a hasty manner and what is troubling her in the first place. In such situations, dialogues are quite key and the manner in which the dialogues are written brings out the pain in Anupama’s life.

The confrontations and how the wife makes the husband understand that she is not the sex object and wants to have freedom at midnight is shown in a very realistic manner. In a nutshell, Freedom at Midnight is a harsh reality of many women which makes you think ten times about the behavior of women.