Level 13 Review (Short Film): If You’ve 12 Minutes To Kill, This One Has Annup Sonii & Sandhya Mridul

The story is all about the one big secret that's revealed at the party and how it unfolds in a casual conversation.

By
Umesh Punwani
- August 14, 2020 | 9:49 PM IST
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Level 13 Review (Short Film): It’s the season of short films and adding to it is yet another Annup Sonii led Level 13. Also backing him is the ever-so-charming Sandhya Mridul. First things first, it surprises you with the title. One walks in thinking this might be something related to the levels of a building but it’s not.

It starts with the usual ‘you take so much time to get ready’ bickering between Rohit (Annup Sonii) and Priya (Sandhya Mridul) who are getting late to attend a wedding anniversary party. Priya is a gaming addict (and hence the title) and has been instructed multiple times by Rohit to not be anti-social at the party they are going to.

The story is all about the one big secret that’s revealed at the party and how it unfolds in a casual conversation. Samir Tevari (Mr Joe B. Carvalho) along with Manish Bhushan Tiwari pen a story around the twist which isn’t a flaw for a short film.

It’s just 12 minutes and the talked-about twist comes at an exciting juncture but somehow the impact is weaker compared to the hype. The concept of short films is such that it requires every second to be intriguing.

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You don’t have much scope to hover around, which Level 13 unfortunately does. It takes a lot of time to get to the point and it fades out very soon post the big reveal. The audience doesn’t get much time to register what happens which shouldn’t be the case here.

Annup Sonii sleepwalks in this one as the range of his character is very limited. He plays an annoyed-yet-loving husband which is probably the only angle he holds on for the all 12 minutes. Sandhya Mridul impresses with her (very) limited screen-space. Rest of the cast is just to fill in the supporting roles. I wish cinematographer Raja Sayed would’ve decided to shoot this in one single shot which was rough but totally doable given the set-up.

All said and done, Annup Sonii and Sandhya Mridul’s Level 13 could be used to kill some odd 12 minutes if you have a boring schedule.

Two stars!

Link to the film:

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