Duet, a short film starring Sidhant Gupta, is a grief-ridden musical set during the encompassing loneliness of the COVID-19 lockdown. The film, which is actor and model-turned-director Sheetal Menon’s sophomore directorial venture, revolves around a musician living alone in an airy house, trying to find a tune while grappling with the loss of a loved one. The film is claustrophobic, triggering at times, but also cathartic. A single, soothing tune in the dark silence of overbearing sadness.
In a conversation with Sheetal, we speak about what made her make this film, choosing Sidhant Gupta for the central role, her creative collaboration with husband and director Bejoy Nambiar, and more.
Excerpts:
What prompted the idea for the film?
The idea came to me while we were going through the lockdown and COVID. I remember at that time I had to pitch some ideas to an OTT platform for an anthology series revolving around the pandemic. Duet was one of the ideas but it didn’t work out there. But, for some reason, I kept returning to it. I wrote a one-page draft and had this feeling that I just want to try and make this into a film. I shot it in 2023, but it took three years to finally come out.
Your first short Siblings (2019) was about two sisters and their comatose father. Duet has two brothers and at the centre there is the grief of losing a loved one. Similar themes...
When I started writing the film, it was actually just about this protagonist who is alone at home during the pandemic and grappling with grief. But as I was fleshing his back story, I was drawn to the relationship between him and his brother, and also with his father and his mother. Somehow it again became the story of two siblings and their troubled relationship with their father. It wasn’t planned, just happened organically. In fact, the story I am currently working on also revolves around three sisters (laughs).
This is a one-character film and relies heavily on the performance of the actor playing it. What spoke to you about Sidhant Gupta that made you get him on-board?
I actually approached a lot of actors before meeting Sidhant. For a short film, many actors aren’t willing to give you a lot of time to work on the process and everything. Vikramaditya Motwane introduced me to Sidhant, when the latter had done his series Jubilee. When I shared my script with Sidhant, he had so many questions and I could sense that he was willing to give time to this. I always envisioned my protagonist to be this guy with a sense of vulnerability, someone who can portray grief with a certain softness. Sidhant was apt for it.
Short films are tough to make, tougher to market. In your opinion, what is the biggest problem a short film director faces?
It’s everything, right from the get go. What is most important is to find the right collaborators and after that, since the budget is so low, you have to rely so much on favours. In India, there is not much of an ecosystem for short films. The only route to put it out are festivals, and that too is such a struggle. Which festivals to go for? And once that is done, which platform to showcase it on?
Both you and your husband Bejoy Nambiar are filmmakers. He is also serving as a producer on Duet. How would you describe this creative collaboration?
Bejoy’s whole life is about living and breathing films and stories, I don’t think I am so dedicated or obsessed (laughs). Although we do discuss films we like and we don’t like but I think we connect more on music. We do tend to discuss more about a certain piece of music which spoke to both of us.
