A young man muses on the nature of love, recounting three relationships from his past. The girls in his life resemble three different seasons, namely Chaitra (Spring), Varsha (Monsoon) & Seeta (Winter).
- Short Films under 40 minutes
Manasanamaha
Drama, Experimental, Romantic
17 mins
India
Telugu
Winner
Jury Choice Best Short Film (Entertaining) - Shilpa Gajjala, Harikanth Gunamagari- Best Director - Deepak Reddy
- Best Concept - Deepak Reddy
- Best Actor - Viraj Ashwin
- Best Actress - Drishika Chander
- Best Cinematography - Edurolu Raju
- Best Editing - Deepak Reddy
- Best Costume - Sulochana Surapu
- Best Production Design - Deepak Reddy
Trailer
Synopsis
Title:
Manasanamaha
Original Title:
Manasanamaha
Production Year:
2020
Subtitles:
English
Casts:
Viraj Ashwin – “Surya”
Drishika Chander – “Chaitra”
Valli Raghavender – “Varsha”
Prithvi Sharma – “Seeta”
Writer:
Deepak Reddy (Excuse Me, WTF, Hide and Seek), Shilpa Gajjala, Harikanth Gunamagari (Lipi, Arupu, Rangadeva)
Editor:
Deepak Reddy
Dir. of Photography:
Edurolu Raju
Sound Design:
Sync Cinema
Music:
Syed Kamran
Production Design:
Deepak Reddy
Costumes:
Sulochana Surapu
Director's Interview
Festival:
2020
Category:
Short Films under 40 minutes
Country:
India
Language:
Telugu
Director's Statement
Manasanamaha roughly translates to ‘Salutations to the mind’ in Sanskrit. The film is an ode to the process of making memories and how they define our perspective. In order to communicate this to the audience, I chose to narrate this story in the first person perspective over the usual third person perspective. Of course it would be biased, but I felt it would also make it more human, full of errors and emotions.
When I started visualizing the film, I wanted it to have its own language, be it the structure, compositions, colours, cinematography, editing or even the narrative. A lot of work went into the cinematographic and sound editing techniques to evoke the sense of nostalgia the character feels while reminiscing. Use of a custom-made helmet rig for the POV shots helped set the tone, as did the fluid watercolour shots to bookend the different chapters of the story.
The idea at the heart of this film is that the endings of love stories can be happy or sad but the beginnings are always happy. With this in mind, I decided to literally narrate a story in backwards to end it on a happy note.
