The short film is in its own way ingenious on the grounds of direction, music, and concept, although camera work and acting could have been better. But the commitment and efforts are commendable. The striking difference between the two protagonists is perspicuous, yet the bond and friendship shown, aptly describes how the social differences are preposterous. Be it the Muslim father adopting a Hindu son or the friendship between Mangalya and Sagar, both indeed provide an important message. The character development (though the movie is short) is quite beautiful, on one hand there is Mangalya, a hardworking rag-picker determined to achieve something big in life, passionate about his dreams and on the other hand there is Sagar, a true friend and teacher. The subsidiary characters also provide a good support to the main cast. Overall the movie is worth a watch and if you are an Indian student you can relate it to your own experiences. Looking forward to future works from the team. Kudos!!
12 Reviews
Doubt
rahulshma4518 October 2012
There is big question on my mind that whether such films are really nice. I got the point of the film and the theme but still i can not decide that was it good or not. The film was on one point inspiring but on the other point with a sad end the film was negative. The message was clear and positive but i am still confused. I saw this film three times to get it clear, but still i feel that the help the main character got from his friend could have been more. The main character is shown careless as per his health. there was various facilities for poor to get medical treatment. I don't at that point what the writer wanted to show. now the last scene, its first look old trick when i saw the candle but then the fire burning was too good, still i could say at that moment he could have asked the help of his same friend.
Anyways that was the writer's choice. Rest i was looking for more scene from the main girl in green dress. She was acting nice. The second main boy character's acting is good but at two scenes he goes over, overall he is calm. The main character is too good, only expressions were weak. i like it.
Anyways that was the writer's choice. Rest i was looking for more scene from the main girl in green dress. She was acting nice. The second main boy character's acting is good but at two scenes he goes over, overall he is calm. The main character is too good, only expressions were weak. i like it.
Nice
clernjns17 October 2012
This short is not just a short. Basically it's being a 25 minutes long. So a very long commercial but luckily also an expensive looking and skillfully made one.
What the short does well is capturing the mood, with its story, settings, characters and events. It also shows some of the relationship latches but it doesn't every do this in a too obvious way. It's all integrated pretty well into the movie. Seems to me that they used some voice actors post the shoot, that normally work on the type of video films, just as this movie is.
But one thing that is obvious is that they went for spectacle instead of realism. It doesn't exactly feature the most likely plot and some of the things that are happening are just not likely to ever happen in real life.
The way I see it; this is just a short that everybody would love to be able to make, with a bunch of friends (if you are a guy that is). A bunch of feelings, a bunch of events, some fun. It's a typical guy flick, with plenty of emotions going on in it, suitably Indian. In that regard this short is simply being a very watchable and maintaining one, which you shall not get bored with.
There really isn't much story present though. It's all some very typical stuff. No real surprises in this short and the surprises that do happen are actually the more stronger moments as the end death.
So it's far from a perfect short but the professionalism it got made with ensures that it still remains a perfectly watchable one, that still offers plenty of good stuff. Hard to make such film outside the subcontinent.
9/10
What the short does well is capturing the mood, with its story, settings, characters and events. It also shows some of the relationship latches but it doesn't every do this in a too obvious way. It's all integrated pretty well into the movie. Seems to me that they used some voice actors post the shoot, that normally work on the type of video films, just as this movie is.
But one thing that is obvious is that they went for spectacle instead of realism. It doesn't exactly feature the most likely plot and some of the things that are happening are just not likely to ever happen in real life.
The way I see it; this is just a short that everybody would love to be able to make, with a bunch of friends (if you are a guy that is). A bunch of feelings, a bunch of events, some fun. It's a typical guy flick, with plenty of emotions going on in it, suitably Indian. In that regard this short is simply being a very watchable and maintaining one, which you shall not get bored with.
There really isn't much story present though. It's all some very typical stuff. No real surprises in this short and the surprises that do happen are actually the more stronger moments as the end death.
So it's far from a perfect short but the professionalism it got made with ensures that it still remains a perfectly watchable one, that still offers plenty of good stuff. Hard to make such film outside the subcontinent.
9/10
Nice film
nishakaur6153 October 2012
Brilliant film, awesome line, wonderful plotting. Saw this film in a screening, the atmosphere was too good. Proud to have the film makers like them in our industry. What a vision. The buy struggling towards success just inspires everyone in trouble to hard hard with their luck. Bit mistakes in editing but that can be understood as for new makers. Much much better then any stupid Hindi films now. You will be forced to see this film more then once for sure. The actors Sagar is just good with his way and Mangalya is the best actor. Nisha too handles the situation good. Di-spite of three main characters in the film everyone is balanced perfectly. No boredom anyway in the film, very good background music would like to see more from the team of Odyssey of Persistence.
Wow
isnehaambre13 December 2012
No doubt that i would not like it. good job, really brought tears in my eyes as i said. The film should have been bit more big. I totally loved it. The acting, writing and everything was just too good. Sagar belongs to my village and i m happy for him. But you don;t try acting more Sagar, i am sure those who know you might have disliked your acting, because you are not like what it is shown in the film. Now next time make a hi-fi film like big films. I although hate this film industry and don't like much to watch films, but i like your film very much. Reviewing here is not so easy as i have to write ten lines minimum, but its worth writing for such a film. Cheers to the team and hope to see more and more films of yours Sagar.
Can be appreciated.
sharmaanup70125 November 2012
Though i felt that the film had lots of defects, but been a short subject film, i think i can appreciate it. The main essence of a short subject and short duration film is to showcase the raised issue/topic in the taken short time. Though the photography seems to be bit weak but cant blame the writers for some quick and strict lines. At some occasions it seems that the film was made only because i guess they could write the dialog good enough to allow the viewers to stick to the screen. It didn't faded out at any time despite of seeming to be what is not expected, a low of energy film. Acting was bit poor, they should have hired fewer better facial expressive actors especially the lead two characters. Overall I rated it 9 of 10 as i liked the issue raised and the way it was driven. Hope they would learn from the mistakes done over here and the DOP should get himself technically clean. Editing needs to be brushed. Good concept with bit weaker presentation. Can be surely watched once.
A complete emotional thriller
raisonicute4419 December 2012
Odyssey of Persistence is an excellent short-story centered on a homeless boy named Mangalya or "Holy", who makes it big in the Engineering Admission test in the face of extreme odds.
A group of friends in the city of Ahmedabad, India are preparing for their 12th grade examinations, all, but one carefree bloke, Sagar, played by Sagar Ambre, ironically, an engineering student himself. Sagar is anything but bothered about his upcoming exams, his interest lying somewhere else. Academic books are nothing but a bunch of printed paper for Sagar who is ready to even dispose them off.
Mangalya (played by Nikunj Pathak), the chief character of the story, on the other hand is a homeless boy desperate to study hard and clear the Engineering Admission test to fulfill the dreams of his late Muslim guardian who has nurtured him ever since he found him abandoned and alone. Seeing Sagar willing to give away his books, he approaches Sagar and requests him to give him the books instead to study. Sagar, ever the carefree guy, does not think a second before casually handing over his books to the penniless boy. The two soon become fast friends and Sagar brings Mangalya even more books to prepare for the Engineering exams. On a visit to Magalia's "home", he finds out more about him and sympathizes with him. A fascinating sequence leads to a thrilling climax, leaving everyone tearful in awe of a determined Mangalya.
The movie is a wonderful effort from youth with little formal training in Film Making and is Hollywood blockbuster stuff. The movie has a clear secular and positive message- firstly, humanity knows no boundaries and that poverty need not be an impediment in the path to success. Nikunj Pathak, Sagar Ambre and team have done a fantastic job .They have wonderfully portrayed a story of persistence, determination and positivity, and they certainly do this without sounding too preachy or elaborate.
A group of friends in the city of Ahmedabad, India are preparing for their 12th grade examinations, all, but one carefree bloke, Sagar, played by Sagar Ambre, ironically, an engineering student himself. Sagar is anything but bothered about his upcoming exams, his interest lying somewhere else. Academic books are nothing but a bunch of printed paper for Sagar who is ready to even dispose them off.
Mangalya (played by Nikunj Pathak), the chief character of the story, on the other hand is a homeless boy desperate to study hard and clear the Engineering Admission test to fulfill the dreams of his late Muslim guardian who has nurtured him ever since he found him abandoned and alone. Seeing Sagar willing to give away his books, he approaches Sagar and requests him to give him the books instead to study. Sagar, ever the carefree guy, does not think a second before casually handing over his books to the penniless boy. The two soon become fast friends and Sagar brings Mangalya even more books to prepare for the Engineering exams. On a visit to Magalia's "home", he finds out more about him and sympathizes with him. A fascinating sequence leads to a thrilling climax, leaving everyone tearful in awe of a determined Mangalya.
The movie is a wonderful effort from youth with little formal training in Film Making and is Hollywood blockbuster stuff. The movie has a clear secular and positive message- firstly, humanity knows no boundaries and that poverty need not be an impediment in the path to success. Nikunj Pathak, Sagar Ambre and team have done a fantastic job .They have wonderfully portrayed a story of persistence, determination and positivity, and they certainly do this without sounding too preachy or elaborate.
thats it
raginik5425 January 2013
Warning: Spoilers
A brotherhood story and a simple story, with a theme portraying the lust for power against brotherhood piety. The narrative is unrestricted with plots generally linear albeit that it is told in flashback. The story embeds complex relations among characters with such relations & revenges constituting parallel narratives for similarity and contrast. The narrative is framed from the perspective of Feng (Daniel Wu) and supplemented with ancillary perspective from the other lead, Mark (Chen Chang). Director Alexi Tan attempts to make it moderately stylistic by use of freeze action (not freeze frame), complete silence and some other cinematographic devices (obviously Tan restrains it from being overdone). Though the movie comes with strong leads and their fine staging, the dieresis is relatively weak and shallow in portraying the evolution of the key antagonists' personalities down the plots. Nevertheless, visual motif (flicking of cigarette on a cigarette box) is repeatedly used to reinforce the use of power and the desire for such. In terms of visuals, the film comes with replete elegant costumes and settings with Mckintoshes, western hats, suits and cuffed shirts' sleeves filling the mies-en-scenes. Fine mastering of lighting and shooting angles in the presence of both deictic and non-deictic music delivers a moody combination of visual and acoustic amusement to the audience. The gun-pointing scenes are fairly flamboyant in mounting up tension whilst sudden fires and zigzags of characters' motions bring occasional shocks to the audience and generate uncomfortable surprises to the audience. Yet the visual-acoustic artifice is less than sufficient to redress its shortcoming in the meek, if not weak, psychological coverage of the characters. The film is another product in which substance is subordinate to style.
Masst
raniraisoni14 October 2012
He is my senior, i saw his film in the lap top of my friend. i like it. he is a very good boy of my college but unfortunately he passed out the next year i was in. In our college there are various extra activities but no one makes films in the Nagar. So it is good. The film is very good, but very difficult to understand. The main actor is very nice and his acting is also very nice. I wanted to write in Hindi but here not allowed.. my words not good so sorry. i like to see that Nagar students can do film acting very nice. first time i feel like Nagar is not village. If the film is in Hindi it is very good for all to understand. The wordings are very difficult for common girl like me. totally i want to say that the film is very nice and enjoy.
Good to watch
hitejine25 January 2013
The film is really good to watch after. Something that one would not get to see in US. For sure one of the film that should US film makers focus on making in. Such subjects are found very rare to the floor of US. Been a student of NYFA i would surely appreciate the vision and would surely make such films in future as my career began. India to going towards producing quality writers though in lesser quantity. But the time would be soon when US writers will be looking towards Non-US writers. Visions need to be widened for focusing on cinematic liabilities. The only problem i sought with the film was a bit in the making. of course director's went wrong somewhere but the writers did their job aptly. Overall 10/10 and a nice film to watch for an aspiring film/TV writer.
Good one to watch
as52399965 April 2013
Really good one to watch. Can definitely give a look. This isn't disappointing though it might be with not so happy ending. Performances are not power packed but they won't still disappoint you. They have feeling into it, they know that they are doing something big as they did least mistakes trying to impress. Thought they didn't succeeded totally but i won't say they failed. No doubt that sensitive people but feel it more then enough and tears would surely run their way. It has a good message but somewhere it might be lagging the way it should be. Not that well shot but writing is too good. Final word could be said that its too good too good to watch. Not forcefully extended cleanly nurtured excellent package.
Impressed
komalcritic8 October 2012
I had rated it 10/10 only because this is the first film of the directors. The thing that impressed me the most are the punch lines. In fact every line is a punch line but it really adds on the pleasure watching it. Nice plotting, they showed experience in that department. Bit week in DOP i expected much better camera work but still good direction. Editing could have been better though nice attempt. Acting was a real punch by all the three parallel leads. Mangalya was the best in his cry scene, he could have been a tough fight in any form of films. Nisha was nice in her own feelings. Sagar was a simple boy with style that suited the combination most. One cannot figure out one mane hero in this film. All three have supported each other nice. Overall good effort, I watched this flick on a video website.
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