A particular silence settles over an Indian home after a man retires. The alarm stops ringing, and the office bag goes into the cupboard. Within months, the man who once ran a department is being sent out to buy coriander, and the family WhatsApp group treats his forwards as a running joke. Nobody calls him redundant, because nobody has to.
\n\nPranav Bhasin’s short mockumentary 'We Were Here' starts in that silence and fills it with noise. Set in an Indian town, it follows three retirees, Bagchi, Pimple and Ganguli. They have decided that if machines are coming for human jobs, humans will take the machines’ jobs instead. Bagchi paints himself silver and declares himself a dish antenna. His friends report for duty as a car’s reverse camera and a microwave. “This is a revolt,” Bagchi says, “a war cry.”
\n\nThe premise is ridiculous, and the film knows it. The three men storm an appliance store and teach smart devices the wrong names for things. They shoot a lo-fi infomercial for themselves and shout slogans out of car windows. Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Andrew Scott executive-produced the film, and it won the Audience Award for Short Narrative at SXSW. It’s easy…
Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle
