Rating: 4/5
Streamed on MX Player, the short interactive movie, Balcony Buddies, revolves around the aspect of lockdown and socialising in a confined space. It shows how two people, who live across from each other, become friends during the lockdown phase.
Story
Balcony Buddies focuses on the blooming friendship between two people, Sunanda (Aisha Ahmed) and Prateek (Amol Parashar), who live across from each other and encounter each other through their facing balconies.
As lockdown commences due to the pandemic, Sunanda takes up yoga on her balcony, where she first meets Prateek who asks her to teach him yoga.
Eventually, they become good friends and start communicating through a string cup phone that is latched across their balconies.
The movie is one of its kind and has an interactive feature that enables the viewers to choose outfit options from Amazon for Prateek and Sunanda, and the movie picks up from each choice made by the viewer.
In due course, the friendship blooms from high and lows and Prateek and Sunanda remain good friends but more like balcony buddies.
Performances
Revolving around the lockdown era, the short film spotlights majorly two characters, Sunanda and Prateek.
Aisha Ahmed, has done an explicitly great job at portraying the character of Sunanda, essentially because of the similarity between the on-screen and off-screen personalities.
Sunanda being bubbly and having a cute personality is well characterised by Ahmed, who is also praised by fans for having similar traits off-screen.
Amol Parashar is back to his breezy and comedic best with an equally good portrayal of his character, who is goofy and funny in the film.
Positives
The entire short film preaches a very feel-good vibe for the viewers, essentially because it focuses on the positive side of lockdowns.
While taking on the perspective of the new normal, the film has done a fairly good job in bringing out such small hopes and positives that are part of the majorly negative aspects.
The portrayal of humans as social beings and the blossoming of a bubbly friendship brings warmth to the fairly gloomy side of the pandemic era.
The one-of-a-kind aspect of interactive material with the audience adds to the positives. Making the audience choose between outfits from Amazon for the characters in the movie, seems like a great way to engage the audience as well as a great marketing strategy. It also brings an engaging element into the movie.
Negatives
The feel-good nature of the movie makes very little space for any major negative aspect. The narrative completely neglects the sorrows of the pandemic which sort of dwindles the balance that reality demands.
The only other setback for Balcony Buddies would be the short runtime.
Worth It?
Balcony Buddies is a definitive watch for everyone, making the audience cling to an invisible hope in this widely gloomy era.
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