Written and directed by Aditya Khude, Roza is essentially a love story set against the backdrop of a city that has lost its peace to communal violence. A topic that is often discussed in the political arena, it is familiar to those aware of history and evolution of civilizations and cities. But, Khude manages to bring out a different theme to this all-too-common concept. With a beautiful, 5:13 minutes at length in duration short film, he manages to punch in together themes of love, separation and nostalgia; all rolled-into-one touching story.
The film starts with the main lead played by Bhavya Sachdeva alighting from a taxi to a colony that seems filled with memories for him. The famed Bombay monsoon being his sole companion, he fills the frame painting a sepia toned childhood that is now clearly lost to time. We see kids playing in the rain and an accidental hit that breaks the window pane. As the owner comes to return the ball, we see the protagonists exchange a glance and a knowing look that tells it all. The story begins from thereon, switching back and forth in time and frame, narrating the tale of a childhood love that still holds a special place in the hearts of the pair.
The narrative’s tempo is heavily relied upon to instill a sense of longing and passing of time. Bhushan Kumar Jain’s camera gives you several wide angle shots laced with intermittent oners to bring out a sense of time trail. The editing is clean giving ample screen time to all characters to fully mature in the given duration. The performances by the lead pair (Sachdeva & Manasi Kamat) and their younger self (Priti Patil & Viraj Rane) are authentic. The dialogues reserved for the very last frame give you a full-blown sense of the pain, reality and the repercussions most love stories must have had to face.
Winner at multiple film festival venues, ‘Roza’ follows the love spawn between two individuals and its fate as is dictated in today’s times by one’s faith.
Watch Roza:
