I get a lot of requests to watch short films, and I thought I’d use the blog to showcase some of them — beginning with Titus And Dronicus, a set of three webisodes. If you know my love for wordplay, you’ll know why I was intrigued by a Shakespearean spin-off with that title, which refers to two PIs first seen talking to Ophelia. Yes, that Ophelia, from the story of a prince who could not brush his teeth without monologuing about it. (Hey, their words, not mine.) The Hollywood setting allows for killer Weinstein/James Franco riffs, and somewhere along the line, we sense the spirit of Tom Stoppard. (Dronicus is a scream every time he reminisces about twin sisters and shipwrecks.) With just the right amount of hamminess in the performances. I laughed a lot.
Baradwaj Rangan 
tonks
March 9, 2016
Hilarious. Thanks for sharing.
Full marks for diversity, with even a saree in the parlour scene 🙂 . And colour blind casting? A lot of Indian names in the credits too.
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olemisstarana
March 9, 2016
Was watching this with headphones on and kept having bouts of expostulatory laughter. Scared my dog at least a half dozen times. Also felt very satisfyingly nerdy. Curiously very Oscar Wildian.
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Gradwolf
March 9, 2016
Is this the first time an old timer from comments space here has transitioned on to the main post subject – both in front of and behind the camera? 😀
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tonks
March 9, 2016
Which old timer is that? Also did someone say that Goutam Menon used to comment here? And is there some special significance to the Omkara review (curious because it was mentioned here more than once recently)
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MANK
March 9, 2016
Howlarious Brangan. thanks for sharing. i always thought there was something strange going on between Hamlet and Horatio 😀
And you have gone and changed the theme again, this time you are going to get beaten up 😉
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tonks
March 9, 2016
Also, may I suggest an alternate name for this category?
“Brief Reel”
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Gradwolf
March 9, 2016
@tonks: The Executive Producer/the wedding officiant in the film.
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Gradwolf
March 9, 2016
Marubadiyun modhalendha?!!! (About the theme)
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brangan
March 9, 2016
So many old-timers. I’m beginning to feel like Gymkhana Club 🙂
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brangan
March 9, 2016
Gradwolf: There are only two free themes I like — this one and the earlier one. But am planning to browse through the premium ones to see what’s there.
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praneshp
March 9, 2016
Wasn’t this theme discussed to death? Maybe there should be a sticky post somewhere to vent about themes/blogs, etc, so regular posts don’t diverge 🙂
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praneshp
March 9, 2016
@tonks: Someone called Gautham Menon used to comment 🙂 I remember him and a user called vijay (who still comments) getting into a silly fight once.
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Gradwolf
March 9, 2016
@tonks: I wonder what was twisted in my mind when I typed that. I meant funeral and not wedding!
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Shalini
March 9, 2016
Don’t we have enough chaos in our lives, without you fiddling around to “find” your damn blog theme?!
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Srinivas R
March 9, 2016
@tonks, the thread where GVM had a spat with vijay was “Kadhalil sodhapuvadhu eppadi”.He also commented on NEP review
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tonks
March 9, 2016
To be honest, Gradwolf, I did not even notice the slip. (Probably because the ambience was as upbeat as in a wedding 😀 )
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Iswarya
March 9, 2016
Gradwolf: But wasn’t RS Prasanna commenting here even before making AA and KSS?
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complicateur
March 10, 2016
Old Timer – From when Gautam Menon argued with someone on here about the use of english in his films. Also the wedding officiant / exec producer. Thanks first of all to Baradwaj for the kind words and you guys for the positive comments. The team is quite energized!
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Rahini David
March 10, 2016
Shalini: I am guessing you never saw this comment.
On Ferraris and Secretaries
😀
BR: Regarding the “Maybe there should be a sticky post somewhere to vent about themes/blogs, etc, so regular posts don’t diverge.
Maybe you can create a page (rather than a post) and put it next to Contact and About.
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tonks
March 10, 2016
@complicateur Also the wedding officiant / exec producer?
I’m sure, like Gradwolf, you meant “funeral officiant”? 🙂
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Gradwolf
March 10, 2016
@Iswarya: I think he was but Prasanna was already in the field of short films, writing for TV etc at that time I guess.
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venkat1926
March 10, 2016
“that guy cannot brush his teeth without monologuing” delightful spoof on Hamlet.
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complicateur
March 11, 2016
@tonks: That was me pulling gradwolf’s leg. I forgot the quotes in my post. 🙂
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sanjana
March 11, 2016
A serious tragedy has become a comedy of sorts. Hamlet has become a symbol of Indecisiveness.
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Iswarya
March 11, 2016
Terrific little spoof. I was laughing hard, especially at the ‘unmasking’ of Horatio as the suspect! 😀
Made me also sort of yearn for that early carefree kind of Stoppard even more. Of late, he’s become all serious and that palpable joy in his writing seems to have almost disappeared. 😦 Almost like what BR used to say about Woody Allen. Any fellow Stoppard fans here who feel the same?
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Kid
March 11, 2016
BR: Thanks much for sharing, this was great fun.
As far as Indian shorts go, I haven’t come across anything half as good (or ambitious) as Kramasha by Amit Dutta (in some quarters he is considered one of the greatest contemporary Indian filmmaker though I haven’t seen any other work of his). Do see it if you get time (it’s with subs), it is unquestionably a masterpiece (the other Indian whose shorts I love is Sudevan)-
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