'Interior-Café Night': Naseeruddin Shah-Shweta Basu Prasad short is about love, second chances

Love, loss and life come a full circle in Adhiraj Bose’s Interior Café-Night. From the YouTube channel LargeShortFilms that gave the masterpiece Ahalaya  starring Radhika Apte in 2015, comes another brilliant short film. [caption id=“attachment_2902674” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Still from ‘Interior Café-Night’. Screengrab from YouTube[/caption] The 13-minute short revolves around a quaint coffee shop in Kolkata; it’s closing time and the radio is playing Bengali music. The cafe owner, Naseeruddin Shah, comes face to face with the love of his life (Shernaz Patel) who left him 30 years ago. As the old lovers reunite, the story cuts to a sort of flashback where a girl (Shweta Basu Prasad) is saying goodbye to her lover (Naveen Kasturia). Their anguished parting is in stark contrast to the old couple’s peaceful and loving reunion. The story of two lovers reuniting after ages has been told a thousand times, but this short wins in the unusual way it is told, and of course because of its star performances. The short marks Shweta Basu Prasad’s return to screen after she was embroiled in an alleged prostitution racket in 2014, and Int Cafe Night sees her put in an excellent performance. Incidentally, Shweta had previously worked with Naseeruddin Shah in the 2005 film Iqbal. The actors are the focal point of the story, and they touch all the right chords with viewers. This short love story leaves you wanting more.