Abhiroop Basu’s short film Meal, featuring Adil Hussain, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee and Abhishek Jain, will be streamed on MUBI India from 16 February for 30 days.
The eleven-minute film has won the Best Short Film award at the Ottawa Indian Film Festival, besides receiving many other awards on the global festival circuit.
The film is also one of around 100 entries to be screened at the Oscar-qualifying Odense International Film Festival in Denmark.
Basu’s Meal will be streamed with some of the classics of Indian cinema, including Awara (1951), Boot Polish (1954), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Mera Naam Joker (1970), Mili (1975), The Great Gambler (1979) and Kaalia (1981) in February.
My stories reflect a part of me: Meal director Abhiroop Basu
The excited director said, “I first got introduced to MUBI when I was in Cannes in 2016. Gradually, it became my primary resource for world cinema, specially the revered classics which we don’t get access to here.”
The director, who collaborated with popular actor Pankaj Tripathi on another short film Laali, continued, “Naturally, having my film on that very platform feels like coming full circle, specially after getting rejected by almost every other OTT platform which thought the film 'too depressing' and 'not suitable' for their audience and said they are looking for 'light-hearted' cinema.
"Tell me, considering the times we are living in — so much chaos and unrest all around — how can my cinema continue to speak of popcorn love stories?”
Basu said it is important to create an environment of dissent. “Cinema should mirror the times it is being made in," he said. "We can do what we can through our creations.”
After being streamed on MUBI India for 30 days starting 16 February, Meal will have a rerun on the platform sometime in the next six months.