Thin Line (Short)
It’s a simple setup- put two people on a journey, and see where they take you. Morally. Emotionally. Philosophically.
That’s the idea behind Subbu Vedula’s “Thin Line,” a fifteen minute short film about two men- Shah (Bobby Routh) and Rana (Chandan Prithiani)- who find themselves trading philosophies and blows when Shah hitches a ride, trying to find help when his wife and child are stranded in the woods.
Vedula could have expanded this into a feature-length thesis on tensions between India and Pakistan (Shah is from Pakistan, Rana from India), but it’s much more effective as a short, which gets the point across quickly and more dramatically than a feature would. No subplots to clutter the issues that separate the two men; just two people, two clashing worldviews, one scenario (set in the backdrop of the Mumbai attacks). But ultimately, these two men aren’t very different…if they can look past the differences of their backgrounds.
Unfortunately, that’s not how human nature works.
