In an age where state-of-the art production infrastructure is available at incredibly affordable costs and at the drop of a hat, pretty faces, glamorous costumes, dreamy settings and some sweeping symphonies have become the staple ingredient not only of Bollywood movies but also short films and music videos in India these days.
While some makers of short movies and music videos are minting money with these ingredients in their works, most of them are unable to make a lasting mark in the mind of the audience with their hackneyed productions as they fail to realize that before they start assembling all these ingredients for a full packaged film, the first and most crucial thing they need is a story. They miss out on the fact that to make a classic you do not need top actors from the industry. You just need a story so compelling that it doesn’t matter who’s playing the part; a story so interesting that its setting becomes an extended character; a story so engaging that you forget what equipments and components have been used to make the classic; and a story so rare that even Bollywood seems to be living off basic, rehashed versions of it as has been the case with the short film, “Good Night,” made by the We Feel Creations.
The We Feel Creations is a West Bengal-based production house, which has been working in tandem for the past few years with Stayfeatured - a highly accomplished featuring team from Mumbai comprising of creative directors Dr (HC) Prachetan Potadar and Neel Deshpande. It has produced over a hundred short films, music videos, documentaries, and TV as well as web commercials over the past 17 years. Its films have won over 250 national and international awards; they have been screened on NDTV PRIME, Dhoom Music and Kolkata TV; and many of them are currently streaming on top OTTs such as MX Player, Hungama and Airtel Xstream.
“Good Night,” - a survival thriller - is one of them, in which, one night after work, Nitu, the protagonist, who is an employee at a fitness centre, is asked by her boss to complete a data sheet on her computer and then leave office. As she is doing so, she is accidentally locked inside by the office clerk, thinking that no one is inside the centre.
Similarly, in the Janhvi Kapoor-starred Bollywood thriller, one night after work, the protagonist, Mili a part-time worker at a restaurant in a mall is asked by her coworkers to put some boxes in the storage freezer before she leaves. As she is doing so, she is accidentally locked inside by her manager, Sudheer Malkoti, thinking that no one is inside the restaurant.
Both in “Good Night” and “Mili,” the protagonist struggles with extreme conditions as she is frantically trying to come out of the place where she is locked. And in both films, the protagonist survives due to their cordial attitude towards “the watchman” of their respective workplaces.
In “Good Night,” the watchman could rescue Nitu because she was the only employee, who wished him good night before leaving the fitness centre every day and he did not see her come out of the centre and wish her on the day she got locked alone in the centre.
Similarly in “Mili” the search party could find Mili inside the restaurant because the watchman told the party that Mili did not leave the restaurant that day as she was the only person, who actually smiled at him before leaving the restaurant every day and he did not see her smile on her way out of the restaurant the day she went missing.
While “Mili” and its original Malayalam version, “Helen,” were released on November 4, 2022 and November 15, 2019 respectively, “Good Night” was released on Pocket Films in YouTube on December 2, 2015. The film was based on a story sourced by Irfan-E-Azam and it was screened on NDTV PRIME and Dhoom Music.
The movie, which is currently streaming on Hungama, is an excellent case in point, which emphatically proves that even with mediocre actors and production quality; you can weave out a story that serves as the basis for two top-grosser of Bollywoood and Mollywood.
The chief director of “Good Night,” Dipika Biswas claims that the basic and foremost ingredient of their films is a strong story-line and a unique way of telling the story. “As we work on a shoe-string budget, we can’t afford to rope in top actors, state-of-the-art infrastructure and industry standard cinematographers and editors for our works. We have to make do with average actors, cameramen, editors and equipments.
However, be it in “The Return Gift,” which won a whopping 50 awards globally or “The Terrorist,” which bagged 41 awards in India and abroad or any other film of ours, our only USP has been our story-line, our content. We have never compromised on our story for commercial purposes. Our main objective always has been to focus and work hard on giving our audiences new, interesting, strong and original stories that would keep them hooked to our films,” she said.
The 48-year-old Siliguri-based director, who has won over eighty best director awards, feels that a story is the product of “Silex Scintillans,” which in Latin means “The Flashing Flint.” “A story comes to you like a divine spark or flash of inspiration that arises from a hard, unyielding source. It occurs during a period of intense creativity and represents regeneration for a writer - a concept central to the metaphysical poets, which was first expounded by the English metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan in his 1650 collection of devotional poems by the title, “Silex Scintillans,” she said.
According to Dipika, like silex scintillans, a story comes to a writer suddenly and unceremoniously. “You do not plan for a story. It comes to you naturally. O. Henry was a great story-writer not by choice, but by compulsion from his natural instinct and innate flair for weaving incredibly brilliant tales, which would come to him as a natural spark like the silex scintillans.
You may hit upon a story idea at the dead of a night or while bathing or cooking at home or driving to your workplace or buying goods from a grocery shop because you don’t plan a story idea. It occurs to you suddenly and you develop it into an engrossing narrative, a gripping script, a mesmerizing screenplay and a once in a lifetime film.
But the commercial compulsion, which denies the crucial role of silex scintillans in creativity these days and forces itself to deliver a story within a stipulated time frame and within the framework of a hit formula leads a writer to a pathetic tale or to a story already heard, watched, and outgrown by uncorking a very old wine in a shiny new bottle. It is this malaise afflicting all genres of film making these days that explains why most feature films, short movies and music videos are unable to hold the attention of their audiences or linger in their minds, despite their incredibly high production quality,” noted the winner of three national Woman of the Year awards from Dainik Jagaran and Anandadhara in 2022 and Bondhu Sobsamay in 2024 for her contribution to the Indian film industry.
But We Feel Creations is not the only production house of short films and music videos, who are concentrating on content rather than on commercial success. Dipika’s sentiments are shared by many small film-makers and production houses, whose films get a mixed response commercially, but win many accolades and critical acclaim.
The rest are following the trends set by blockbusters of Bollywood, Mollywood or Tollywood and are quite unapologetically, serving drab, repetitive, unoriginal and highly predictable stories, which they sometimes copy paste from various sources or drill a tunnel straight back into the past to get them. They ask us again and again to watch for an interesting twist or for a deja vu, and pathetically cry in a corner when called out.
WE FEEL CREATIONS’ FB GROUP LINK:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2445545102325266
WE FEEL CREATIONS’ INSTA ID LINK: https://www.instagram.com/wfc20009/