Unarthal, by director Balaji SBR, is about the realization of the fact that the life is always being waited, instead of being lived by one. It tries to redefine the conception of losing oneself into an irrecoverable grief due to the loss of a loved one. It stands on its ground to emphasize the importance to go on in life.
The 11 mins short subtly points out a lot in its given time. It doesn’t rely on the importance of the dialogues or words instead it scores points with its impressive visual language. Be it the way it establishes whose life we are reading into and how the protagonist Lily is related to that person, by just showing the name board in front of the house and by the indentation that’s left on Lily’s finger from her wedding ring, it aims for thorough communication. A rightly used, perfect amount of static shots, intents to attain the power it tries to reach with its content. Cinematography by Karthikeyan Chandrasekar is so tender. It doesn’t overpower the intention of the film which I would say the same with the choice of the music here. Shamanth Nag’s background score seeps to convey hopes and despairs in life with a resonating music. It is perfectly underplayed. The sound design and its execution deserves a solid kudos. Anjali Rao as Lily gives a moving performance. She tries to capture the pain of a grieving widow who has lost her loving husband to the war, for no fault of hers or her husband Murali’s. Director Balaji makes his statement about how love transcends religion, the ugliness in the name of politics, that happens in the distance to ensure the peace in normal lives and the despairs over the loss. It subdues the flower power to uphold the non-violence ideology too when the little boy offers Lily a flower. A flower power, not only there to stop the war all over the world, but to stop the personal war with oneself too. It indeed stops Lily on her journey to end her life. She remembers the good times and tries to be content with herself and with the memories she holds. After all, Murali did fulfill his promise to have led a happy life with her until the cruel death do them apart. She finds happiness in that fulfilled promise. Unarthal is a moving short about realizing the importance to go on in life. It is streaming on short flix app.
