Kaala short film: Manjunath Hegde and Aruna Balraj give a sweet twist to this love story

Cinematographer Satya Hegde’s Youtube channel is meant to be a platform for upcoming talent. From the time he made his page available for this purpose, Satya has hosted short films like The Critic, Puppets, Infinity, Last Order, Sambrani and, most recently Kaala.

Directed by Vinay Shastry, the 24-minute short film has Manjunath Hegde and Aruna Balraj in the lead. The film begins with Sundaram, a long-time bank employee, who has decided to take up voluntary retirement. Sundaram is also a loner, with no family to speak of and has always been considered ‘slow’, given that his reactions, spoken or otherwise, are always too late to make an impression.

As a youngster, Sundaram had a massive crush on his classmate Bharathi, who was a good writer and poet and, hence, everyone’s favourite love letter author. So much so that she soon got the moniker LLB – Love Letter Bharathi. While her words allowed several relationships to blossom and take flight, Bharathi was set for heartbreak when the man of her dreams also used her ‘services’ for his mystery girlfriend, while she could not muster the courage to give him the letters she had written for him. Sundaram, as it turns out, also held a torch for Bharathi, but could not tell her the matters of his heart either. When they then meet 30 years later and exchange their stories of unrequited love, they decide to act on it and see if they can find their happily-ever-after.

Also on the cast of the short, which has music by Manikanth Kadri, are Rama Krishna Kannarpadi, Sumanth L Hegde, Poojita K Hegde, Srihari, Swathi Sriharsha, Agasthya Nadiger, Arvind Nadig, Abhilash , Chandan Pashupathi, Priyanka, Manjushree D G, Vinay Prasad, Guru D Bhat, Prasanna P Hegde, Sooraj K Shettt, Anuradha G Hegde, Rashmi Hegde, Supriya Muchguli, Chaitanya N J, Ramya D Hegde, Chandrashekar M Udupi, Narayan Bhagawath and Satish Hegde.