Jilebi (Tamil, 2015) | Short Film Review

Jilebi starts off like every other Gen-Y short film where two young folks talk on phone in a somber tone with expletives thrown around casually. Of course, there are some good lines amidst the conversation like the where Game of Thrones is described as Bit ku naduvule thaan kathai ! The narrative jumps into serious mode with Akshay-Prithu’s fabulous background score accompanying it. For a short film, the scene of crime is depicted extremely well and probably warrants a U/A certificate too. Overall too, the production design is very good with the restaurant location where Rishi meets Priya looking particularly charming. The shots are also well composed. The screenplay which keeps jumping from one time period to another adds value to the proceedings. Good VFX effort in showing brain mind connection, neurons-synapse interaction too.

Performance wise, Rohit holds his own as the protagonist Rishi, except for a couple of places where he tries too much to bring out the right expression. He comes into his own in the last few minutes radiating brilliance in anger. Kumaresh too acts as the perfect foil initially dominating Rohit and then slowly submitting to him. However, as Rishi himself comments, the 3 people who act as research associates are very bad choices for the role as they don’t seem convincing. On the editing front, it looks a touch odd when the camera stays on Rishi even though someone else opposite to him is speaking. There are also some sequences when Rohit reminisces on his qualifications as a Lover that could have been avoided to lessen the runtime. The subtitles are good except for one key mistake where Kumaresh says 2 months but come as 2 years in the subs.