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Budh was written and directed by Prashanth Ingole. It stars Richa Meena, Geetanjali Mishra, and Sabina Jat in the lead roles. Budh is a tale about 3 women from different cultural backgrounds who face discrimination and abuse from the individuals in their lives and while they may come from different places, it turns out what they must do isn’t something different. The short film delves deep into various social issues faced by women throughout the country and perfectly executes them.

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Throughout the film, the story shifts from one character’s POV to another seamlessly. We are introduced to Laxmi initially who is a Hindu widow from rural India. Laxmi’s life is made miserable by her mother-in-law and brother in law who verbally and physically assault her for trifle matters. We later come to find out that since Laxmi gave birth to female children and her husband passed away in a road accident, she has been forced to sleep with her brother-in-law to give birth to a boy child. Amidst all this abuse, Laxmi still puts up with them and obeys them.

The second main character we are introduced to is Zainab, a Muslim housewife who has married for two years and we see that her marriage life has brought nothing but misery to her. Her husband Fayaaz is dismissive of her and constantly berates her for not having a job despite having a degree in fashion designing. Even her simple acts of kindness like calling and enquiring about her husband’s lunch are met with humiliation and disdain from Fayaaz. She is even physically abused for showing an act of defiance against her husband. When she confesses to her parents about her problems and wants to split up with Fayaaz, her mother dismisses her that she should do no such thing as it is part of married life and it is not acceptable in society. Her father on the other encourages her to stand up for herself and face her problems.

The final main character is Yvonne, a Christian college student who recently had a breakup with her boyfriend who she has been with for 3 years. She struggles to move on after finding out her boyfriend cheated on her and is unable to focus on her day-to-day activities. Her friends compelled her to move on and not worry about something over which she had no control. Soon she finds out that the breakup has made no impact on her ex and she finally decides to move on.

The final act of the film features all three protagonists rising and facing their abusers head-on as ignoring the elephant in the room isn’t going to solve their problems. Laxmi has had it enough with her mother-in-law and outright argues about the inequality and disrespect she is given in the household despite doing everything they want. She decides to leave her husband’s family along with her daughters. Zainab has started working on designing new clothes but she is still berated by her husband who is annoyed of her work. Zainab finally lets loose on her husband. Yvonne is out on a date and her ex humiliates her in a public place, she decides to give him a piece of her mind. All three scenes are edited and stitched together fluidly as the transition is quite astonishing to behold.

Budh has one of the best editings I have ever seen, as scenes seamlessly transition from one character to another most exquisitely and ingeniously. All the actors brought their A-game especially the lead actresses. This film had a lot of unpleasant moments that made me uncomfortable but it was acted out to near perfection where it felt pretty realistic. They did proper justice to showcase what domestic violence victims face every day. It was a great decision to not include any background music for this film as it elevated the raw performances and brought in a sense of realism. The writing was also crisp and to the point and it didn’t contain too much exposition as the film relied on visual storytelling as certain frames spoke louder than words. This short film was able to perfectly follow the “show don’t tell” rule. Although I wish more screen time was given to Yvonne as her story did feel short and slightly rushed compared to the other storylines but this is a minor criticism.

It was nice to see not much emphasis was put on all the character’s religions and backgrounds. Though they all come from different parts of the society and they all face abuse differently, all of them were able to rise against their abusers. The film explores various aspects of hardships faced by women throughout the country and perfectly executes it with the stories of the three protagonists. This is a must-watch short film for everyone and more filmmakers must aspire to create art like this.

These are my ratings:

1) Direction: 9.5/10

2) Script: 9.5/10

3) Screenplay: 9/10

4) Editing: 10/10

5) Cinematography: 9.5/10

6) Acting: 9.5/10

7) Sound effects: 8.5/10

8) Creativity: 9/10

My overall rating for Budh (Awakening) is 9.3/10

Watch Budh Award-winning Hindi short film now.

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