Kabeer Khurana’s short Dali available on Humaramovie

The short film Dali, directed by Kabeer Khurana, is available on the YouTube channel Humaramovie. The live action-animation musical revolves around the passionate relationship between Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali (Roche Mascarenhas) and his partner Gala (Aastha Oza).

Dali considered Gala as his muse and as the true inspiration behind his work; he even signed her name on his paintings during the 1930s.

Produced by Humaramovie, the short film has taken visual inspiration from animation auteur Norman McLaren, particularly his use of image multiplication in his path-breaking cult short Pas de Deux (1968).

The short took around three years to complete, and Khurana and his team experimented with anamorphic sculptures, which have been used in an Indian film for the first time. Many visual effects were tested during pre-production to achieve this result. The post-production for the short was finished at the 22-time National award-winning production house Climb Media.

Dali has been scored by Student Oscar finalist Emiliano Mazzenga, who composed the score while pursuing his Masters in Screen Scoring at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. The live orchestration and recording of the music was also completed at USC.

The short film won Best Film (Audience Choice) at the Flatlands Dance Film Festival and has received the Platinum Winner award at the International Independent Film Awards, Best Music Score at the Virgin Spring Cinefest, Montreal Independent Film Festival, European Cinematography Awards, Global Film Festival Awards and the Depth of Field International Film Festival.

It was nominated for Best Short at the Choreoscope Dance Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain. The film has also been nominated as Best Screendance Short at the IndieX Festival, which is set to take place in September 2022, competing with two other shorts in that category from South Korea and USA.

The short film has been co-produced by Gully Boy (2019) and Pagglait (2021) actor Nakul Roshan Sahdev. Artist Ranjit Dahiya, who is a record holder for painting Asia’s largest and tallest wall murals, was the art director on the project along with Twinkle Kataria.