Interior Café Night
- The Crux
- Apr 5, 2020
- 3 min read
by Bakhtawar Ahmed
Unrequited love is a subject that has many stories written on it and it has been and will be a favorite subject among people. Our review for today is of a short film named ‘Interior Café Night,’ a beautiful and heart-touching story on this all time favorite subject.
The scene opens into a quaint café, picturesque ambiance, filled with the sound of coffee brewing and a song playing on an old radio. The song that I couldn’t understand at first, but it was a beautiful melody that I had to search on Google. A Bengali song roughly translating into 'You've returned after eons, please stay for a while,' the song is just perfect for the moment!
As we all agree to the fact that café is a perfect place to have a coffee and revisit some beautiful memories from past. But who knows that after thirty long years someone is chosen by destiny to meet with the lost love of his life, once again!
‘Interior Café Night’ is a short film directed by Adhiraj Bose and presented under the banner of Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films. The film is about two long-lost lovers who meet by chance after thirty long years. Their lives are now very different, they are no longer bound by the responsibilities and conditions that stopped them all those years back.
It is about the moment when he recognizes the face he last saw thirty years ago. He recalled all the memories from past with those teary eyes looking at her, the love of his life. There is that hesitance in that moment. The euphoric peace and the eagerness to know what happened in all these years,
On another table there is a young couple, probably meeting for the last time. The promise of staying in contact is not that strong as much as the feeling of losing someone forever. The two young lovers are not ready to accept what the destiny has chosen for them. The girl's family is shifting to other city as her father has been transferred. They are frustrated, heartbroken as they simply see this separation as a loss they might not be able to deal with.
Despite assurances of making it work, the heart knows that things won’t be the same. So one of them spell out their worst fear: “What if you meet someone else? A few letters, phone calls and then what? –he asks, as if he had already charted out every practical consequences of an impractical relationship.
They didn’t seem to compromise. She left, they cried, they lived, she moved on and he didn’t (he chose not to) and now here they are again.
Soon the viewer realizes that it is one same story. The two parallel times set in one frame. It is one story that is giving you feels of bitterness of past and also the happiness of reunion at the same time.
The dialogues such as “How does someone forget the last meeting”? and ‘well yes… thirty years can hardly be ‘long’ hit you right in the heart.
The characters played by Naseeruddin Shah and Shernaz Patel, who share the warmth of an old relationship reuniting after three decades, the actors deliver incredible performances.
The director has creatively put the past and present in the same frame to give his viewers the experience of pain of losing the love and finding it again all of a sudden. Maybe one day, after thirty years is the idea that Interior Café Night delivers beautifully.
Interior Café Night is beautiful story about love, loss and reunion. It is about the unsaid emotions. The film does poetic justice to the subject. It is one story on two tables. On one they left, on one they meet.
The cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Shernaz Patel, Naveen Kasturia and Shweta Basu Patel.
Bakhtawar Ahmed
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