Singapore Short Film Awards - It's Magic by Shilpa Krishnan Shukla

I wonder what's the point of making a film when it illustrates a situation that has been played out to tedium and clicheness in TV soaps. Unless of course, the director has been quite starved of TV fare. In 'It's Magic', a man, a tad remorseful for his affairs, returns to his former love. But she is not appeased with just a make-up gesture. She needs vengeance for the hurt and lures him into a lethal trap. The generous peppering of her lines with cliches like 'now you see it now you don't', reinforces the feeling that you have watched this to the accompaniement of countless bedtime snacks. So my guess is the point of making this film could be simply a directorial exercise. Or is it a 'Girl Power' message? This is where Shipla's casting of the Indian lady here makes a strong point. With her hair rebonded, dressed in a chic modern outfit and hands gracefully balancing 2 glasses of wine, she cuts a figure seldom represented in local movies - the modern suave Indian woman. The closest to that was last seen in 1979 in Saint Jack (especially when Monica Subramaniam untwirled her sari...).