A laugh riot love story: Shanthi Muhurtham

Something as innocent as teenage love can leave a spark inside a person that could last forever. An idea as simple as this has turned out to be a stepping stone for Anand Menon and his team of filmmaker friends. At a time when short films are a plenty on YouTube, getting the right amount of hits and clicks is no easy task. Anand, through his laugh riot short film Shanthi Muhurtham, has done what very few rookie filmmakers have done before.    “The movie was released on July 28, the pre-production started back in December. Within a month after release, it crossed three lakh views and even director Major Ravi shared it,” says an elated Anand.

“This is the 10th short film of the team Lumier Broz and my eighth film. Lumiere Bros was the team started by myself and my friends,” says the young director. On Shanthi Muhurtham, he says, “We always try to select a unique theme for short films. But when it came to making a short film based on love, we thought of capturing one closest to real life. Basically, the film surrounds around school life; so we have taken pieces from our own school lives and the people and experiences we came across during those days.”

A still frfom the short film

Anand plays the typical best friend ‘Sreejith’ to protagonist Karthik, played by Anand’s brother. “In our team, only three, including we both, are into acting; the rest of the actors in the film are all from outside.” Anand, along with Lumiere Broz, have earlier come out with noted short films such as Kutty Rashtriyam, a political satire, and Psycho, a psychological thriller.

Anand, who is currently pursuing a diploma in movie making, says that filmmaking was a passion he had been following since schooldays. “This has been my passion since Class X. We started making short films since 2013. None of us have learnt film making; I just started now. When we made this film, we never expected this much overwhelming response and support,” he signs off.