"Small is beautiful...small is revolution" a TV commercial goes on narrating the ease of a small thing. Here, let us see how a small one makes all the difference.

Your heart moans when your hard earned money is robbed by some reputed firms with a knack of customer service.
Your face turns red when your pretty daughter is molested by her teacher.
Your wit blows out to exploit the nuances whenever you come across weird things.
You want to share your thoughts and you need a rendezvous to present your encounters.

Then why don't you transform that sequence of your ideas into a motion picture.
You need not to be a director by profession.
You need not to be a techie to wield a camera.
You need not to be rich to put your flick on view.

You might be a business man, a lawyer, a SW professional, a doctor, a student...
if you have a thought,
if you have a reason,
if you have a handy-cam,
You can make a short film and screen it too.

"Short Cuts", a Hyderabad based organization is striving to lay a platform for short films, a budding art form. Film of any genre, language, format, anywhere in the world is a highly creative effort that speaks one language - the language of expression, as seen by individual film makers - generally a reflection of their own influences, social conditioning and circumstances.

Why 'Short Cuts'?

"Short Cuts is an initiative by a group of film enthusiasts who believe in the power and versatility of the medium and are convinced that given the right avenues to screen and network, the commercial viability will match the creative efforts, acting as a catalyst and thus spawning a larger industry, wider audiences and dedicated infrastructure" according to Mr. Zahoor Pasha, Media Consultant and President of governing body of Short Cuts.

"Ours is the first film club in India dedicated solely for the screening of short films" exclaims Mr. N.M. Pasha, a filmmaker who is on the governing body of Short Cuts as General Secretary. Mr. Pasha who worked with Varma Corporation & Annapurna Studio earlier, wanted to screen his own film but he failed to find a venue to showcase his film. He decided to do some thing good to short films on a par with mainstream cinema.

To name a few:

The first screening of Short Cuts was Aswin Kumar's Oscar nominated "Little Terrorist" on April 10, 2005. Since then it's been exhibiting the short films made by many enthusiasts from Hyderabad like National Award winning director Mohan Indraganti's 'Chali', Music Director R.P.Patnaik's '22 Minutes', Poojita Chowdary, daughter of Renuka Chowdhary's 'Sand in my Nostrils' and 'Gender Bender', FTII (Pune) students from Hyderabad like Ajita Suchitraveera's Student Oscar Nominee 'Notes on Her',
Sudhakar Reddy's National award winning short film 'Ek Aakash' A student of Bhavan's College, Nikhil Acharya's "The Jog".

Apart from these hyderabadi filmmakers the other films screened include 2005 Oscar winner 'Wasp', 2005 Cannes winner 'Wayfarers', 2005 National award winner 'Girni', Student Oscar Award winner 'Helicopter' etc.

Pros and cons:

Though it is a budding genre in India, many countries are already into the screening these films commercially in theatres by clubbing four or five short films as a string. In the coming years it is going to be a big trend in India also. Another perception of short film is it allows one to have quick view and come back to work unlike the feature films which swallow a valuable time of 2 to 3 hrs. Short films, documentaries, ad films and special videos afford a window to narrate a story or a thought in a concise timeframe, thus challenging the creative mind to come up with the best. An increasing number of talented and young filmmakers across the country are choosing short films as the medium to convey their filmmaking and narrative skills.

But exhibition of short films is strangely confined to star hotels and color labs with a viewer ship of celebs, business class and executive circle. Why can't they widely be reached to general public when they are portraying social and political stances? Mr. Pasha said they are going to bring awareness of these films by screening them at the auditoriums, universities, institutes etc., Keeping the ticket fare a bit high for viewing of four or five is also one reason for limited viewer ship which is essential to compensate the expenses borne by them, however, they don't charge anything from film maker to screen his films...after all it is for a good cause!