Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Popular Bangladeshi filmmaker Nuhash Humayun’s globally acclaimed horror short film ‘Moshari’ made its worldwide debut on Vimeo on October 15.
The film won multiple awards at major film festivals like Atlanta Film Festival, Bucheon International Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival and Woodstock Film Festival. Despite acquiring multiple global accolades, the eerie film failed to impress as a horror. The Business Post’s Siam Raihan takes a deep dive into the different aspects of ‘Moshari.’
Plot - 10/10
Like Nuhash’s most horror projects ‘Moshari’ had an excellent plot. The story revolves around two sisters in a post-apocalyptic world, where bloodthirsty creatures referred to as “vampires,” haunt the earth after each sunset. The only way one can protect oneself during nighttime is to stay inside a ‘moshari’ (mosquito net) until the sun comes up the next morning.
Attraction - 10/10
The major attraction and hype around the film built up as ‘Moshari’ became the first Bangladeshi short to bag three Oscar Qualifying festivals— SHORT SHORTS & ASIA - Best Short & Governor of Tokyo Award, the “Best Horror” award at the 18th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF) in Los Angeles and the Jury Prize for Best narrative short at Atlanta Film Festival with. Major publications around the globe gave stellar reviews of the film. The post-apocalyptic world where vampire-like creatures rule the night in a Bangladeshi setting was also a major feature behind the hype.
Theme - 8/10
Like his recent Hulu short ‘Foreigners Only,’ ‘Moshari’ is also set in a dystopian Bangladesh. On the surface, the film’s main theme is feminism where two sisters (played by Sunerah Binte Kamal and Nairah Onora Saif) are on their own in a post-apocalyptic Bangladesh. It is actually a social commentary on how women should ‘cover up’ in a toxic patriarchal society which is filled with these vampire-like monsters. Even children like ‘Ayra’ are not safe from these monsters at night. Though having a strong theme tied around with its storyline, ‘Moshari’ feels like a weaker execution than other Nuhash-helmed horrors.
Acting - 5/10
Both National Film Award-winning actress Sunerah Binte Kamal and young Nairah Onora Saif did a fair job of acting in their respective roles. Nuhash Humayun’s lack of control over his acting direction is less visible throughout the 22-minute-long film. The trouble is that no clear indication of the two sisters’ socioeconomic background was made. The two sisters are from the same family yet their Bangla fluency is completely different. Foreign juries have no idea how Bangladeshi dialects and accents work. They only saw the performances of both actresses. Yet, if we look closely we can clearly hear that the child actor Nairah Onora Saif (who played the character of ‘Ayra’) can barely speak a line of Bangla. Her dialogues seemed forced as she struggled to pronounce each word. Whereas, her own sister or ‘Apu’ (Sunerah) has excellent pronunciation. Why would two siblings who were born and raised by the same mother have such different fluency in their own mother tongue? This was an extremely amateur move from the director to cast two sisters whose language doesn’t even match each other.
Dialogue & Screenplay - 5/10
The film’s screenplay is mediocre. Leaves a lot of loopholes throughout the film, especially the difference between the two sisters and their control over Bangla. No hints about how the bloodthirsty monsters took over the planet. Another thing we realised is that if you observe the English subtitles of the film then the dialogues are brilliantly written and the flow of the conversation between the two sisters is very natural. However, the film is shot in Bangla. The Bangla dialogues are unnatural and the flow of the conversations is completely off. We suspect that like the young girl in the film, Nuhash himself has less control over his own mother tongue. That is definitely not a sin for a filmmaker. But poor translations of a screenplay which was probably written in English and then shot in Bangla with a central character who also does not have control over the language are definitely details that are just too hard to ignore. If the original screenplay actually was written in English then a better translator should have been hired and then edited before the shoot.
The climax of the story was very predictable and the whole ending scene was bloody but very boring towards the end.
Cinematography/Visual - 9/10
Young Nuhash is undoubtedly one of the best contemporary filmmakers in the country whose visuals are just sensational. His pairing with his cinematographer Ejaz
Mehedi produces outstanding visuals. The treatment of the film does give us hints that this was an independent project with a very limited budget. Yet, they pulled off an amazing establishment shot of a post-apocalyptic city with a very minimal budget. Kudos to Nuhash’s team and a fantastic job by his production designer Shadab Zafar, one of the most gifted production designers in the country.
They also had to get creative with the prosthetics, costumes and art within their budget and executed them perfectly. The director must be applauded for proving yet again that you do not need a million-dollar budget to create international standard content.
Editing & Effects - 8/10
The editing and VFX were good. Nothing too extravagant yet served the purpose of the story and was very cleverly dealt with. The animated ending credit scenes were by far one of the best I have seen in any Bangladeshi content.
Sound & Music - 9/10
Nuhash’s score sense is always one of his strong suits. ‘Moshari’ is no different. The location sound, score, sound design and mix were superb.
Direction - 7/10
The project was very well planned and executed. Pulling off a vampire story on a limited budget and a small team takes courage and Nuhash has successfully proven his worth on the international stage with ‘Moshari.’
Overall - 6/10
Though ‘Moshari’ made global headlines with its innovative concept it still is not a good horror film. Nuhash is constantly experimenting with the horror genre yet no content of his will run a shiver down your spine. It does not mean that he needs to start making more jump scares whereas I think it is great that he avoids such cheap methods to dumb down his horror flicks. However, he is telling new Bangla stories in the horror genre and growing as a filmmaker with each new project. Putting aside the language errors and straightforward ending, ‘Moshari’ might be an interesting watch for avid horror fans.
MOSHARI from Nuhash Humayun on Vimeo.
