NewsBytes Recommends: 'Interior Cafe Night'—Mature, sentimental, and well-acted
Adhiraj Bose's Interior Cafe Night is a short film teeming with a quiet, tender energy. A strong, fierce sense of love and sentimentality embellishes it, and even though we meet the characters only for a few minutes, we get the feeling that we know them all too well. Sharp and fast-paced, yet unhurried and calm, it's available on Amazon Prime Video.
Two couples with similar yet different stories
It stars Naseeruddin Shah and Shernaz Patel as a couple that meets in Shah's cafe in Kolkata after several years. Their lives have taken drastic, different turns since they separated, and meeting after a long time sparks a newfound friendship between the two. Shweta Basu Prasad and Naveen Kasturia play another couple meeting for the final time in the same cafe.
Can't take your eyes off Shah!
In one of the first frames, Shah's eyes sparkle when he locks them with Patel's. It's an instant re-connection. They have been out of touch for several years, decades even, and yet, time hasn't ravaged their relationship. They aren't hung up on the past; instead, a beautiful sense of camaraderie effortlessly shines through. Friendship, after all, is the bedrock of love.
You instantly feel for the younger characters
Equally enchanting is the relationship shared between the younger couple, standing tragically on the precipice of a breakup. They both know that separation is their only option, and they try to somehow slow down time, fight destiny, and delay the inevitable. The film isn't quite dialogue-heavy, so the actors' mannerisms and eyes do most of the talking.
Makes for a quick, satisfying watch
Past and future collide in these two mature love stories, and even if you can't relate to the characters, your heart beats for them just the same. Interior Cafe Night demonstrates how the love that mends us can also break us, and in a way, fate and free-will come to terms with each other in this film that's a meditation on life itself.
