Leap Lipi is a short film written and directed by Vaibhav Munjal. It narrates a sweet tale of a nightly encounter between a man and his food delivery executive for that particular night.
The film begins with a knock on the door of a nameless man’s house (Ashok Lokhande). It’s his delivery executive, Pramod (Rajagopalan Ganesan) who reveals his name upon questioning later.
He’s come home to deliver a special dosa costing the man 376 Rupees to which he’s paid a note of 500 and asked to keep the change. This shocks Pramod as the tip is too high, to which the man kindly asks him to sit and have a chat with him.
He’s drinking liquor, there’s an old ghazal playing in the background and the man seems to be extremely let down by something. They start discussing birthdays. This is when the man reveals some extremely strange facts about his life; he was married when he was 5, his wife left him when he was 8 and he joined the retired life by the time he was 14. Pramod is confused, yet patient. The man continues to talk about how he complained to his mother all the time but she insisted him to wait for 3 years and celebrate later on.
Slowly and steadily Pramod realises what the man is upset about. All the pieces fall into place and Pramod suggests a solution to keep the man’s heart calm for a few years longer.
The film in itself is a wonderful concept. The setting is beautifully kept and the performances are to be highly credited for. Although, the story line is one that is rarely found and worked upon, they could have managed to glorify it in a manner where the main motive behind the film wasn’t revealed in the beginning itself. The last shot of the film is that of a calendar, expressing the date due to which the man was upset, it sort of loses its moment due to predictability.
Cinematography and screenplay takes away the show from these minor flaws and allows The Red Sparrow to hand over 4 chirps to this beautifully subtle short film.
Watch the film here –
