New Years Eve
2018 · 9m · India
Directed by Pranav Bhasin
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age, romance
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic, humorous
A young Mumbai man navigates the streets and the rocky terrain of modern romance while hunting for a New Year's Eve date.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The rom-com premise is so stock it's almost a parody of itself—guy needs a date, hijinks ensue—but Bhasin seems aware of it in a way that might actually be doing something, and I'm curious if that lands or just disappears into the Mumbai-indie-comedy noise.
A competent coming-of-age romance that situates itself in the familiar register of contemporary indie comedy, though it doesn't quite announce a formal argument worth returning to; the contemplative tones suggest ambition, but the film plays it safe in its construction.
The dark comic edges cutting through what could be a sincere romance—and the decision to set that tonal friction against Mumbai's actual geography and social texture—is what's holding this together; that's where the small-scale craft becomes purposeful.
Reviews
A charming short by New Delhi-born director Pranav Bhasin. Inspired by the inherent humour of living in a city where public urination and disorganized lamp posts make an evening stroll "similar to playing Temple run," the plot of the film is similarly drawn from Pranav's personal experience.