''Bloom'' is a 2021 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

directed by Richard Anthony, starring Mitra Visvesh and Ashwin Raam. The plot focuses on the romance between two different people, set in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

against the backdrop of

COVID-19 lockdown in India On the evening of 24 March 2020, the Government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21days, limiting the movement of the entire 1.38billion (138 crores) population of India as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in India. ...

in March 2020. The short film featured music by Hari Madras Rengarajan, cinematography handled by Niketh Bommireddy and edited by Sangathamizhan E. It was distributed by

Mani Ratnam Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. H ...

's production house

Madras Talkies Madras Talkies is an Indian entertainment company, which was established by director Mani Ratnam and his brother G. Srinivasan as partners in 1995. Madras Talkies has actively involved in production of films and television serials, which are d ...

, and the film released on 19 May 2021 through

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Plot

Mitra, an artist and Ashwin, a budding musician reside in the same street in Chennai. After a nationwide lockdown to curb COVID-19 pandemic was imposed in March 2020, Ashwin started connecting virtually with Mitra and they develop a special bond within each other as they start exploring each other's life. They experience all kinds of emotions such as love, happiness, fun, excitement, guilt, jitters, confusion, loneliness, silence, through their relationship in the lockdown phase. The rest of the story is about their virtual relationship and how Mitra met Ashwin in person, for the first time.

Cast

* Mitra Visvesh as Mitra * Ashwin Raam as Ashwin *Kaber Vasuki as The God (narrator; voice-only)

Soundtrack

The music for the film is composed by Hari Madras Rengarajan and the short also featured poems written and recited by Kaber Vasuki. The original soundtrack album featured thirteen tracks composed by Rengarajan and his music band Sonocosm, and was released in its entirety on 7 June 2021 through

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

and

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

Marketing and release

announced the distribution of the short film and presented the first look through their social media handles on 10 May 2021. The film was released on 19 May 2021.

Reception

Asuthosh Mohan of ''

Film Companion South Anupama Vinod Chopra () is an Indian author, journalist and film critic who served as the festival director of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival from 2015 to 2023. She is also the founder and editor of the now-defunct digital platform Film Compani ...

'' reviewed "It’s not so much a denial of reality than a suggestion that films that help you cope are not necessarily an escape from reality. The pandemic, after all, plays God in ''Bloom''." Avinash Ramachandran of ''

Cinema Express ''Cinema Express'' was an Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language entertainment fortnightly magazine published from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was a part of The New Indian Express, The New Indian Express Group, which also publishes ''Samakalika Mal ...

'' wrote "There is no right or wrong in ''Bloom'' because it is set in a space where the lines can actually be blurred, and no one would bat an eyelid. Just like most things in the world, the beauty and the not-so-beautiful parts of ''Bloom'' squarely lies in the eyes of the beholder."

References

External links

* {{Madras Talkies 2021 romance films 2021 short films 2021 films Indian films about the COVID-19 pandemic Films impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic 2020s Tamil-language films 2020s Indian films Indian short films Indian romance films