Just Like a Bird Review

Just like a Bird is a 2020 Indian short drama film Written and Directed by Anivesh Soni.

What I loved most about Just Like a Bird is the poetic intentions that it was able to maintain throughout. The story of someone struggling to move on past a relationship is something that I can personally relate to, having gone through something similar myself. However, it does feel like a film that even at 19 minutes long might either need be longer or some story elements changed a bit to push it to an even stronger place.

What I mean by that is in the first act of the film we have a good introduction to our protagonist and the style of the film, but it ultimately feels like where the story wants to focus on is his past relationship. I think in getting to that thread faster it would connect us more quickly to his plight. In my own personal opinion too, I think getting to know more about him from the beginning would help us to connect to him more as well. At the end I ultimately found myself wanting to know about his motivations and his other life experiences that inform why I should care about who he is. This nit pick though is probably better reserved for something more like a feature film though so I won’t hold it against the film at all.

I think the visuals that are presented throughout are strong and even though there are some moments of focus hunting by the camera the naturalistic approach to the cinematography is well done. Having a good eye for when to shoot at different parts of the day is always a hard one so I applaud Soni for finding those moments and utilizing them to his advantage. What I will add to that though is there is a heavy use of what seems to be stock elements in the film. There is nothing wrong with this at its core but it does make for some jarring transitions between what was filmed on location and what was added by stock.

The score utilized is good and the song choices are informed which help the film get its good messages across. The fades between them can be a little too quick at times though at least to my ears. There is one song too which borderlines a bit too close to melodrama but at the same time it also reminded me of many anime movies as well which I have enjoyed over the years. There was one moment in particular to my eyes that seemed lifted from a similar scene in the anime film Your Name, just as a complete aside.

I never mean to come across as too harsh or nit picky with my reviews so I hope I in no way offend Soni with some of the things I have noticed here while watching. I think he has a good eye for framing and is doing a great job at telling a deeply emotional story. It is not easy maintaining a somber, serious tone for a film and I think he is doing great work here. If you have some time to sit down to it, I would recommend you do so, Just Like a Bird is a solid short film and I hope I can continue to see more of what Anivesh Soni creates in the future.

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Cheers!

Daniel Hess

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