29 Jan 2009:

KB Shankar directed a short film titled 'I Vote For…'. This short film is produced by Teja Edara (final yr student of VNR vignana jyothi engineering college, Hyderabad) on Rebel Union Production banner. This film was screened in Prasad Labs on the evening of 27 January. Here is a crisp review -

Jeevi Review:
A journalist takes his magic mike around the polling booths on the day of voting. The mike will make speakers only utter the truth, but nothing else. He takes the opinions of few voters coming out of polling booth and all of them are forced to tell truth because of the magic mike. 99% of the voters have their selfish reasons to vote for a particular party or candidate. Most of them do not keep the interest of the nation in mind while franchising their vote. Journalist finally meets an old man who wants to vote for an ideal party and ideal candidate. Ironically, somebody else votes using his identity (rigging).

This short film explains how voters became mean and selfish while exercising their franchise. At the same time, this film takes a balanced approach between the politicians and voters. This film does not blame anybody. But it puts forth various facts and harsh realities.

The actors in this film are thorough professionals and you don't see any amateurishness in their acting. It is because all the actors belong to theater. One actor who impressed me the most is the guy wearing blue shirt who does rigging for a quarter of bottle and a packet of biryani.

I am not an enthusiastic viewer of short films, because most of these short films are made because somebody wants to show to the world that he/she could direct, not because he/she has a story to tell. But this short film is different from others because it has a purpose. This film has thought-provoking dialogues, good acting and neat direction. And with general elections being round the corner, we could not have asked for a better purposeful and relevant short film. On a whole, 'I Vote For…' should be promoted enough reach the common voter because it spreads awareness about choosing the right candidate.

PS: There is a dialogue by the elder man at the end, "Our political system is like this because of poverty and illiteracy. I don't blame people suffering from poverty and illiteracy to have selfish reason to cast their vote. But I do definitely find something wrong with educated and financially well-off people who think selfishly when they vote." This dialogue will be relevant to all the people who watch this short film because it is made in English language.