Returning to his locked childhood home in order to sell it, a young man — battling personal demons brought on both by his growing-up years and adult life — revisits his past and discovers the relatively small and often unseen ways his seemingly strict father cared for him. That not only brings on a sense of catharsis, but also makes the man — a divorced, single father himself — understand, acknowledge and make peace with his unprocessed feelings, including the emotional distance that often creeps in between fathers and sons.
This is the deeply resonant story of The Pact, an impactful short film that is anchored by an almost one-man act from Parambrata Chattopadhyay. Written, edited and co-produced by Apurva Asrani (whose filmography as writer and editor includes names like Satya, Shahid, Aligarh and more recently, web shows like Criminal Justice and Made in Heaven), The Pact — whose tagline reads: ‘A story about fathers and sons’ — is directed by Lakshmi R. Iyer. Playing out over 25 minutes, the Hindi short film, which has already piqued interest and resonance with its trailer, will release on YouTube today.
Touching upon the theme of filial ties and the rift that consciously or subconsciously slips in, especially in a father-son relationship, The Pact came from a personal space for Asrani — his often tenuous equation with his father who passed away a few years ago.
“There were many aspects of my father I adored and some that I disliked. Because of the differences we had, I had chosen to stay away from him and only see him when it was necessary or comfortable. But as the clock started ticking and his health started failing, I felt it was my duty to be around him. That was a difficult period — seeing him slip away, wanting to say many things to him but having to be careful... seeing him become a child from being a very intimidating person in the past. So there was a lot of confusion that I felt during the last phase of his life. After he passed and in the years that followed, I kind of mentally began having conversations with him — in the sense, trying to see him as a human being. I am also at that age where I feel I have certain qualities of his. I am cutting myself some slack, and now wondering why I didn’t do the same for him? I also wish there was more communication between us,” Apurva tells t2.
It was while prepping for a possible collaboration with prolific short-film maker Lakshmi R. Iyer that Apurva wrote a father-son story rooted in childhood memories and vestiges of the past, specifically in a home, where Raghav (Param) arrives. The almost-calculative goal is to make a quick sale of the modest apartment in a railway colony that he grew up in. As Raghav walks from one room to the next and revisits familiar corners, vignettes of his growing-up years, marked by a doting mother (Kalyanee Mulay) and a largely distant and absent father (Jayraj Nair) simmer below the surface. It is the silence of a house that speaks and also a transformative conversation that proves to be both epiphanic and healing for him.
For Parambrata, The Pact touched a chord on several levels. “The son and father aspects resonated with me the most because I lost my father at a very young age. I did not have the good fortune of seeing my father grow old. Now that I am a father, I understand the kind of relationship a father shares with his child. It is a little different from that of a mother, but it is just as precious and valuable. That is something I felt was being explored in The Pact, and it resonated with me deeply,” Param tells t2.
Losing a parent, unprocessed grief, words left unspoken are themes that silently bind, and that also hit home for director Iyer. “After losing my mother in 2022, I became acutely aware of the silences that follow loss, the words left unsaid, the moments we wish we could change. Telling this story from a male perspective, where emotional expression is often restrained, helped me explore grief and vulnerability in a way that felt deeply authentic,” she shares, saying that making The Pact was “as emotionally demanding as it was creatively fulfilling”.
FAMILIARITY OF THOUGHT & TEXTURE
For Param, doing The Pact wasn’t as much about revisiting his own childhood as it was about exploring something that felt deeply familiar to many.
“Honestly speaking, my parents were very different from the kind of parents depicted in this film. Having said that, there are certain patterns that are universal and repeat themselves in every household in some form or another. The expression or manifestation may change with cultural differences, but the theme remains universal. For instance, fathers are often less emotive and less talkative... they don’t express themselves as much as mothers do. Traditionally, and within patriarchal structures, mothers have also tended to spend more time with their children. These were some of the similarities I found when reflecting on my own childhood,” says the actor.
The makers decided to go with Parambrata as the man who holds the entire short together because of his “less is more” quality as an actor. “To be seen, he doesn’t feel the need to overpower anyone else in the frame. He observes a lot, he listens a lot. The character is that of a man who doesn’t speak much, and Parambrata has an emotive face. Throughout The Pact, you will find him observing and reacting... sometimes, there is hardly any dialogue. If we had a lesser actor, I don’t think this character would have had the kind of impact it does,” Asrani tells us.
KEEPING IT SHORT
Asrani says that he was initially hesitant to see The Pact as a short film, but eventually realised that this was the best possible format for a story of this kind to be told. He also says that making this short film using limited resources — he and Iyer put in money, muscle and more — and now releasing it on YouTube has been “a liberating experience”. “There is no platform, no marketing, no third party to dilute what we want to present to the audience in the most honest, authentic way. I always feel that if something is genuine and comes from a place of integrity, the viewer will like it and also own it. It may take time — The Pact is an experiment — but we are hoping it will make a place in the hearts of people.”
CLUTTER BREAKER
The Pact is a rare short film which has a robust and soulful soundtrack, scored by Anand Bhaskar and powered by Hamsika Iyer’s vocals.
M. Ravichandran Thevar’s lensplay of light and shade lends a special edge as well as a softness to The Pact, with Raghav’s childhood home functioning as a character in itself.
“The house is the vertebra of the film, and everything else forms around it. The core of the story is this man and the house he returns to. Having worked in films for 25 years, I have noticed that the same universal emotions, when presented through newer stories, resonate the most. When I watch films from the 1960s, I am still affected by them — not because they feel novel, but because I enjoy returning to those experiences, reconnecting with those emotions, and experiencing that catharsis. For me, it is less about newness and more about resonance and connection. That is what attracted me to The Pact — I appreciate a well-arched narrative and a clearly defined character journey,” says Param.
Which is your favourite film/series on the father-son dynamic?
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