I See You and Mandala may be brief in duration, but they refuse to be small in ambition. At a recent screening and press interaction, the teams behind both films spoke with quiet confidence about stories that unfold in compressed time but linger beyond it.
Short films today are no longer calling cards. They are statements. To imagine something, shape it, and deliver it with emotional clarity within minutes is no easy task. Yet, a young crop of filmmakers from Mysuru seems ready for that challenge.
Produced by Ravindra Joshi and directed by Minchu Joshi, I See You marks her first independent directorial step. Having earlier worked as an assistant director on Sakutumba Sametha and Ibbani Tabbida Ileyali, she now turns inward with a story about being seen, and more importantly, about seeing oneself.
Set against the restless backdrop of Mumbai, I See You is a quiet relationship drama. It follows a young woman navigating a fragile phase in her relationship, where proximity does not guarantee connection. Over the course of a single day, an acting class exercise compels her to pause and confront her own emotional patterns. The film asks a simple but piercing question: When was the last time you truly saw the person next to you?
Minchu Joshi described it as a coming-of-age relationship story rooted in reflection. The film features Minchu Joshi, Vishnu Raman, Rishi Raman and Sandeep Shivashankar, with music by Zubin Paul. It has been made in Kannada, English and Hindi.
If I See You is introspective, Mandala is unsettling.
Produced by Raman Productions and written, directed by and starring Rishi Raman, Mandala ventures into psychological territory. It tells the story of an Indian couple living abroad whose casual LSD experiment spirals into a night of hallucination, generational trauma and emotional violence. What begins as a relationship argument slowly transforms into a surreal confrontation with buried childhood memories.
The narrative unfolds over a single night, within a single house. There is no escape, neither spatial nor emotional. Rishi Raman described it as a psychological thriller that explores inherited wounds and the ghosts we carry from childhood. The film has been made through crowdfunding, signalling a collective belief in the story.
Cinematographer Sanjit Singh, editor Mahindra has music composed by Nandan Srinivas. Mandala is available in Kannada and English.