When an Indian farmer from a small village is selected to go on Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to be a Millionaire), his village celebrates but, when he returns home not even having made it out of the opening round and onto the main stage, he is desolate and the village despondent.
I came to this student film with my assumptions too much in play; reading the plot summary made me think this would somehow try to spin off a Slumdog Millionaire with its plot, but actually it goes the other way from that and has a very pleasing little story that harks back to the value of community and support, rather than just money. As an idea it is a good one, and one that the film has a go at with a good heart. Unfortunately it doesn't have quite enough of other things to make it work. Primarily the resources; it looks okay and the performances are decent enough, but it lacks polish in the production values – not such a big deal for a student film, but the more disappointing lack is that of discipline and focus.
The film runs to about 20 minutes – which it really doesn't need to do in any way, shape or form. This limits how punchy the short is, and it does tend to drag – with specific scenes and over the whole duration. The idea needed a tighter delivery, and a better touch with the emotional build-up and payoff; the charm of the ending is great, but it is not delivered as well as it needed to be to really have that strong, feel-good ending. Shame, because it is a good idea with a good heart, but the delivery needed to be a lot sharper than it was.
