Capital A small a Review - Teenage Version of Dum Laga Ke Haisha

Amazon miniTV's latest short film, Capital A small a, features Darsheel Safary and Revathi Pillai as the leading pair. Remember watching Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar's Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015)? Then you are going to visit the same story again, but in a teenage ghetto. This cute love story is short and sweet and somewhat effective for the IQ level of teenagers because it belongs to their world.

The short film revolves around the lives of two youngsters, Aanshi and Aadi. Aanshi is a dreamy, romantic student who is in search of a classmate as a dance partner at a farewell party. A new student, Aadi (Darsheel Safary), enters the classroom, and Aanshi is immediately attracted to his charm. As expected, the two instantly form a connection and start seeing each other. While their bond blossoms, situations take a turn for the worse when their acquaintances poke fun at them owing to their stark height difference. As they become a laughing stock, Aadi feels awkward being with Aanshi, leaving her disturbed for a while. Will the two reconcile?

Darsheel Safary is known for his impeccable debut in Taare Zameen Par, but this role of Aadi gives him a heroic dimension. His smile, face, romantic attitude, and awkwardness are all expressive as he deals with the teenager's conflicts. Revathi Pillai did look oversized, but wasn't her role supposed to do that? Maybe yes, maybe no. Anyway, her cuteness saves the day, but I feel it could have been more relevant in today's time than just being a chubby girl with instant reflections. The maturity was missing, but I can't blame the actors for that if the writer was the one who envisioned them as such. That Ishita looked like a perfect school girl, though.

Coming to Gaurav Joshi's writing, Capital A Small a actually had so much to score but underperformed. Look at the title once; it's so meaningful. But does the writing provide full exposure to it? I'm afraid not. Like I said, we have already been through Dum Laga Ke Haisha, so this body shaming concept isn't new at all. The only difference is that it's about height and not weight. I have been a teenager myself once, so I know how they behave at this age. Joshi's writing only captures the romantic side of it, while the intelligent side is completely ignored. Arkodeb Mukherjee's framework is fine, and Akshara Prabhakar's editing is not bad either.

Capital A small a could have been allegorical if wanted, but skips the advanced filmmaking. Sumit Kumar's direction is pretty good if we are considering the teenage story. However, one cannot miss out on poking fun at the fact that it could have been made for adults as well, if he wanted. As a whole, it puts on a fairly good show in 20 odd minutes, despite the time limit and short form of storytelling. If you liked Dum Laga Ke Haisha way back in 2015, then try and catch Capital A small a just to relieve it in brief format.