Guava Express, a short film by writer/director Ankit Singha, is about that most quotidian activity – the walk to work. That’s a nice thing to look at, especially when the view is of the verdant and steamy streets of the world’s digital workshop in India.
This short piece shows a series of viewpoints that challenge themselves. But this is not done using different people or perspectives a la Rashomon, but rather from an omniscient but undecided narrator who regularly invites us to inspect our world instead of just forever passing it by. The films protagonist is known only to us as Hero (Abhinav Mondal.) At the opening, he passes a branch in a puddle. But then our narrator suggests it is, in effect, suffering an “existential crisis.” Guava Express then meditates on the people navigating its presence as they pass. It is quirky and pretty funny.
“…about that most quotidian activity – the walk to work.”
Singha’s film has the loose form of something that was filmed ad-hoc, perhaps even spurred by his own commute. But the ease with which the camera has been picked up does not necessarily suggest intellectual stymie. What he is saying about this activity is actually pretty edifying, asking us to see ourselves as the adventurers life makes of us, whether we like it or not.
When our humble protagonist stops for a snack of some guava from a street vendor, little knowing that it has cough syrup and other psycho actives in it, the film becomes a psychedelic swirl. It wasn’t quite clear why, but it kinda felt a little like an excuse to punch some buttons to do with solarization on Final Cut or what-have-you.
Guava Express is a fun little sorbet that shows you something new.
"…asking us to see ourselves as the adventurers life makes of us..."
