Short Film Review: Kriti is an in-the-face thriller

After playing an ethereal Ahalya, in the much publicized short-film by the same name, Radhika Apte is back in another short film, Kriti. Unlike her role of the effortless seductress in Ahalya though, here she plays a psychiatrist to a hoodie covered, sunglasses wearing, mentally disturbed man, played by Manoj Bajpayee. The film starts rolling fast after Bajpayee’s character mentions ‘Kriti’, his girlfriend/partner, who herself has a mental condition – agoraphobia, which is an irrational fear of outside spaces. The rest of the film goes into the blurry territory of reality and imagination, where the viewer is in the guessing game of the possible truth.

There is no good way of saying this: Kriti had far more potential than was actually realised.


The clues are a bit too obvious, and the technique too shrill. So Radhika Apte, whose acting prowess is really not in doubt, is looking strange herself as the shrink in charge. Her physical transformation involves having light eyes, which of course is deliberate, but greater reliance on mannerisms or personality might have added some more layering to the character.

Then there is Manoj Bajpayee, who is introduced in aviators(?) and a black hoodie. Since he is playing a disturbed individual, his strangeness in behaviour and appearance is more believable. What, however, is not so believable is the art and props in his house. His house by the sea, open and breezy as it looks, has mannequins in various places in the living area. This is strange enough by itself, but what takes the cake is the crazy art in his house. There are multiple paintings of women’s faces, with some fluids running down their eyes, like tears. Basically it looks like the house of a crazy dude, and there is no stone left unturned to ensure that the paintings are visible from a variety of angles of the house.

There is also the shock value of faces coming out of nowhere, which are meant to reflect the protagonist’s mental challenges, but essentially they are meant to scare. The music is also a bit much, too. It is likely that since it’s a short film, the film maker’s idea was to make it as impactful as possible. But that idea seems have got a bit lost, and it turns out to be a cheap thrills flick, where it could have been much more. 

The Kriti film poster is sourced from Wikipedia. It is licensed under Creative Commons