MAYA I ANIRUDDHA ROY CHOWDHURY I ROYAL STAG BARREL SELECT LARGE SHORT FILMS 

Here it goes The year is 1993. The era of liberalization has just begun. Maya is here a representation of girl who loves the idea of being unique (as the uniqueness is understood to be a virtue in western civilization). She hates being ordinary and simple though she knows tamil , bangla (regional language)as well as hindi and english too. She adore western ideas prefer coffee over tea, reads life magazine, loves mtv loves pop music. On the other hand anjan is typical representation of indian boy belonging to middle class, having preference of moral and ethical value so that he is assumed to be "good boy". But actually he is struggling with his identity in this new liberated era. Suddenly the whole idea of being cool (such in western context) supercede his own idea of good boy. Anjan is attracted towards maya. His crush towards maya is growing stronger and stronger as he sees this bold and beautiful girl day by day during his music training. He even try to attract her towards himself in his timid and shy way. Ultimately he converse with the girl by imposing other identity on himself. This conversation he has the edge over maya's psychology as he has minutely observe her during music lesson. Though the ultimate motive of anjan is to just attract this beautiful girl (as he finds himself trapped within the image of good boy and shyness during face to face meeting with maya), he does not want to deceive her in any way. But unknowingly he finds the maya is attracted towards the false image of his imposter reckless identity. As maya tells him about the love for this person who she loves though she doesn't even know by name, merely on the basis of this cool type reckless image. Anjan founds himself lost the battle of love due to his own mis representation. He is very unhappy causing pain in the life of the person he loves most. Thus ultimately packs the bag of imposter identity and once again goes back to music ( in first scene his mom tells him to carry the tiffin cause he will be late, he tells mom that he is going to music class thats why he is late even on Saturday. In the last scene too he picks up his tiffin so probably he is going back to piano lesson) with the fear in his heart that the person he loved most will be heartbroken because she thinks the idea of someone unknown knowing her so good has some mystical novel destiny with an element of mystery (human nature love mystery ie surprise). In overall sense the whole plot can be summerise as the human journey in which we prefer complete different idea about life society civilization beyond our own native values, (we also tend to prefer western values and ideas rater than indigenous values and idea,) thus resulting in overall sorrow for each. Mystery becoming misery.

When you pretend to be someone else to attract someone, but then they end up falling for the false image you created instead of the real you...what a tangled web we weave. 7.5/10

"Tumhe pata hai wo feeling Jab tum kisi ko jaante nahi ho But compare to anybody in the world you know the person the Best" what a line clapping 🙌🙌🙌🤗🤗

How come no one is appreciating the beautiful and mystic background score.

Abeer Chaterjee is always great it doesn’t matter whatever roles he plays! I am a big fan of him from Southern California.

When story bring a role to Padmapriya, story becomes more beautiful to narrate. Thanks LARGESHORTFILMS for brining her again after Chef..

Such an attractive lady is.. Padmapriya.. bewitching beauty and so gracefully acted. The male actor Abir is sooooo cool and extremely talented actor . The way he played the introvert part and in the second he looked like Casanova... Literally, both the artists are amazing .

This was so touching and deep on so many levels. I just love the fact that these kinds of thought provoking, beautifully crafted movies are being made in India now. 🙂

Soo mysteriously romantic the other side of introvert guy is...Loved it 😘❤️. The last seen of packing the bag is like keeping our feelings in our heart rather than speaking it...It made me regret what I did in past 😭😭

I love the tiny details which are depicted in every film by you guys. The mirror with all its melancholy. The background religious invocation. The clothes of the characters. Everything. Again a Masterpiece.

Nice to see padmapriya in a non Malayalam film. It's such a strong script and very relatable. We humans are all split personalities in some way or the other. Abhir, you rock as always.

What an impact Padmapriya!!!!. Abir Chatterjee spot on...both the characters. Congratulations to both of you & best wishes. Some characters have so much LIFE in them!!!

Aroma of innocence. Desirably quaint. Lovely music. Good screenplay. Competent performance by Abir and Padmapriya. Mixture of Bangla+Hindi+Tamil was great. Impressive.

The best representation of the 90's era .... everything is flawless and makes me nostalgic....

Hats off to " Pink " Director Aniruddh roy choudhary who created it too..such a super talented director he is , One can feel the perfection in his direction , the way he unfold the story is amazing , an introvert person has crush on a lady but not been able to confront her directly but he made an another image of himself similar like her to impress her , but when he realised that she is in love with that Another image person of himself so his world comes to standstill ..Such a irony of life depicted here , Great work by director & actors 👍👍 awesome ..

that bag is heart... which everyone closes and runs with mind. life is so simple. but we usuly end up closing in a bag/boundaries.

Perfect! Just like the Art Films I used to see with my parents when I was child; ending being open to interpretation. Somehow, felt the excitement that the girl had when she used to await for the phone call everyday, maybe because I too had the same excitement when I started chatting on messengers in my initial years of corporate career in IT. And appreciated the decision that the good-boy took even if it broke the girl's heart; he set his intent straight for the record. Brilliant, this short film! Have watched Abir's acting in bong movies but Padmapriya was mind-blowing is portraying maya, she is an excellent actress :)

Padmapriya is just stunning & wen she speaks in Bangla.... Darun 😍 & Abir 😘❤️

13:00-14:50 best part of this movie😍. " Jis pagalpan itna sukoon ho wo galat nhi ho sakta na?" and the bgm ❤

agar paagalpan mein bhi itna sukoon hai toh wo kaise galat ho sakta hai...loved that line

Its most common in middle classes, they rarely dare come out , they always being captured in between good or bad and they kill their reality.

Abir Chatterjee is always a great actor from short films to byomkesh.

It's like me on phone vs me in real life..lol

One interpretation could be that.....It tells how not to change one's true self...Even if it is for the person he/she adores to the maximum . Thats why i guess when he realised that the girl didn't liked him but a totally different personality even though they both are same ,he choose to quit that very phase of him which was just made up and remained stick to the one he really was. Great work!Indeed!

ANIRUDDHA ROY CHOWDHURY story & direction awesome. Padmapriya and Abir Chatterjee magical performances. Many claps for the Maya team

Eastern Bengali dialect, so close to heart. The religious hymns reminds me of my mother reciting holy scripts. Like some spiritual poetry in the air...

The girl's acting is soooo much like tabu...real and very good

Bravo ! Not in terms of just story but the background score, cinematography and lighting were all so perfect. Kudos to the director

What an incredible script, screenplay, direction, acting and how could I forget beautiful use of light and framing(cinematography). I love it !!

He made himself what she dreamt of his man to be, the very idea that she was not in love with him rather to a person who he is pretending to be, In this time of world people usually don't love for who you are, but rather who you are pretending to be and the idea of being different with juxtaposition is portrayed beautifully.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Maya. She loved the idea of being unique and different, which means being special and different from others. She knew different languages like Tamil, Bangla, Hindi, and English. Maya liked Western ideas and things like coffee, a magazine called Life, MTV, and pop music. On the other hand, there was a boy named Anian. He was a typical Indian boy from a middle-class family. Anian believed in being good and having strong moral values. But he was also struggling with his identity in a changing world where being cool and different was becoming more important. Anian started having feelings for Maya when he saw her during his music lessons. He tried to get her attention, but he was shy and didn't know how to approach her. One day, he decided to pretend to be someone else to impress Maya. He thought this would make her like him more, even though he didn't want to deceive her. Anian talked to Maya using his fake identity, pretending to be someone cool and reckless. He did this because he thought it would make her like him. But he didn't realize that Maya was falling for this false image he created, not the real him. Maya told him about her feelings for this person she liked, even though she didn't know his name. She was attracted to the idea of this mysterious person. Anian felt unhappy and guilty because he had lied to Maya and caused her pain. He realized that pretending to be someone else wasn't right. He decided to give up his fake identity and go back to his music lessons. He was afraid that Maya would be heartbroken when she discovered the truth. In the end, Anian packed his bag and went back to his music class, feeling sad. He knew that Maya would be hurt when she found out the truth. This story shows how sometimes we are attracted to different ideas and values, but it can lead to sadness and confusion. It's important to be true to ourselves and not pretend to be someone we're not.

All the comments mentioned till now talk about his naivety/introvert nature as his true self and the mysterious character as imagination /morichika/different persona. Why? What if his actual nature is the one shown as mysterious however he is forced to put on the naive mask because of some constraint, his family /society etc etc... The fact that the whole mystery 'get up' was lying with him from a long time (his mom wanting to throw it away as old junk) is proof that it wasn't just to impress Maya. He has had this strong desire for being this character since long time which is why he couldn't get rid of it. What if him stowing away everything in the end is a symbolism of him failing to express his true nature and taking the tried and tested path which is so common in Middle class families.

What I gathered was that quiet-people are more observing and their thought process is more complex than an average Joe's. But for them to show that off and impress others, they have to break that quietness, which is a big deal for them, because once they start opening up, that would make them no different than others. In this video, unfortunately the male character had to prove how smart he was thru a different identity (I would call it 'his dark-self') since the girl just like any other person seemed to have under-estimated him (because he was always quiet) but when he figured that the girl started falling in love with his dark-self, he was disappointed because it was not his true-self that she fell for, so he decided to suppress his other-self. I find this film very interesting because it sends a very rare message that we should not under-estimate introverts and force them to be like others. The level of understanding that they possess is at a different level and extroverts don't find it easy at all to understand them, whereas vice versa is not true. Now that is what makes introverts more interesting than extroverts.

that love which etymologically is untainted and unconditional has become a product of MAYA in the present times has been shown so artistically that it makes you stop and ponder....TRULY EMOTIONALLY ENGAGING...this I believe has been Aniruddha Da's USP all thruout..kudos to the team...

Padmapriya has acted so well! My! She has brought in so much energy to her character, being chirpy, naughty, etc! Wow, wonderful!

A film well thought of with intricate details from the dazed timeless old mirror, to the European flowy flowery dresses depicting the fluttery femininity ,to the long barred windows of old bengali era.the mix of cultures languages, with a peaked bangal accent bengali spoken by the mother, the evenings and mornings depicted by the "panchali" chantings of bengal deities,the transformation of the lad from simple to stylized to make him acceptable to the girl ...all makes the film so beautiful..special credits for the rain sequence in the narrow lanes with covered verandas a typical beautiful depiction of laid back North Calcutta..estatic...While watching the film the imagery brought back the famous scenes of "Malena"..those dresses,curvy figures alluring...

A really good work by Anirudhha Roy Chaudhury. I surprisingly found the grand similarity of this film with one of his best creations, ANTAHEEN! Both the stories tell us about the two sides of a human character, one put carefully inside a shell, and the other made to face the struggles of life. When this practical self tires of it's struggles, the other self puts in appearance and turns out the whole life into a drama!

Reminds me of the past. I could relate so much with the character. I learnt my lesson but it was too late and I had lost everything. Everything that I loved and love of my life is lost. If some one else relates to this good boy character, PLEASE GIVE UP THE GOOD BOY ACT. FOLLOW YOUR LOVE. LIFE IS FOR ONE TIME AND TIME NEVER COMES BACK. Today, I have everything that one can wish for in this country except happiness. I have lost the purpose of my life. Without love there is no meaning to life. When you find your love, hold on to it. Hold it closer to your chest, cherish every moment that you spend with your love. Listen to the rhythm of life, listen to the sound of breathing together in silence where there is no need of words to say that you love her. Look into her eyes until your reality melts into her dreams and start dreaming together.

Wowwww.. have not finished the video yet but Padmapriya is such an attractive smart woman... Can't take my eyes off her.. malayali women.. take a bow folks

Short films are the best moments for me now a days, I totally forgot to watch long length movies, but we go so deep into the Story, but the climax doesn't sounds like its Completed, it keeps mind in a Blank Mode.. Hope it can change a little

പദ്മപ്രിയ പൊളിച്ചു ട്ടാ.......male character is jzt superb 🤘🤘🤘🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥luvd this

Touching, thaks anirudha roy chowdhury sir for the hope

" MAYA " .... which is described by various scriptures as that which is not or we can say that which is just illusion.... in this film the girl loves the thing which is just attractive or which makes her feel cool and unique than others..... Pop music, mtv, coffe over tea etc. Are representation of illusions which a person creates around him.... even the person who was talking with her was also a illusion.... and she is neglecting the simple, sober Anjan which is the reality..... she is connected with the illusionary person and admires him..... like every person who is attached to some kind of illusions or Maya......

Music is beautiful.. It's occupying your mind... Movie is simply awesome..

The BGM... ❤️ Lazy summer afternoon in a Bengali Balcony 💚

I did not know about this short film earlier. But when I watched it I was just speechless. I thought it would be same as typical love story of a bengali guy with a south Indian girl. But it was differnet. Rather unique. Just loved it and Abirda is really great.

Ah, brilliant way of storytelling.

This feeling is better than a good relationship 😍

Whooa Maya trapped in Maya. Amazing blend of art of directing and acting.

If the ending of the movie should be changed the we the watchers will more happy... but the mystrieous ending chemistry is so impressive and thinking.. and my most favourite abir chatterjee is very stable and simple in anjan.. like it is the real fact of ours life in the last stage of 20th century..

Abir da always fabulous❤❤

The short film show the bitter reallity of today's era where we still judge people by their appearance and capability and make fun of it .. But we never thought they might be different and unexpected another unexpectedly way...

The name "Maya" in its bengali meaning perfectly syncs with the storyline. Loved it.

I was like this in late 90's.. I used to call girls as stranger.. Many turned into my real life friends. .. Story took me back in time 😇😇😇😇😇... Felt like I've traveled time backwards

What Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi would look like had it been sensible! Padmapriya is always such a joy to watch :-)

My god!!!Abir😍😍😍

Excellent piece of work about embracing one's own identity over any other acquired (here western) identity. How to achieve maya (things) people try to become things that they are not. Beautiful concept with great direction, writing and music. The camera work with mirrors is both creative and metaphorical. Loved this piece!!

It's like a piece of beautiful art. This is just not a film. It's an amalgamation of so many things. Art/philosophy /period feel. The end result is this delightful piece. Kudos to each one of the person who participated to bring out this beauty

IDK how I love bengala stories and their writings 😊😊😍

Beautiful love story 👌👌👌💐💐💐

Very beautiful story. I wish i was born in that era

The moment I saw Abir I knew it was going to be an impressive short film ♥️💯

I understand.. We understood... Thank you... So lovely so unique.... Life... So lovely.... So beautiful... Love all ..God bless all take care all..

can i get the recording of the beautiful background score somewhere on the youtube?

Lovely & simple lov story ❤️❤️

Very good... thought provoking.. We always want to become someone else to impress sm1.. Bt whn v get there..v hate ourselves.. Beautiful..👍👍👍

This soulful film is going to stay with me for a long time. Brilliant work!

This was so transcending!!! In love with it..

The whole concept is explained in the title itself! 'Maya'

Superb. Felt like an alternate version from a track of the classic film Antaheen, which was made by the same director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. Like what may happen with the man who used to call Sharmila Tagore & then suddenly from one day the phone call stopped coming. Actually the mystery that was between the characters of Antaheen, one of my all time favorite film is also here. And it is a wonderful short film I have watched.

Padmapriya♾❤️

Wow this short is really impressive.. I love it. The director and the actors have done a fine job.

Sorry padmapriya!!! You would have got a better place in the movie industry with talent within!! Kudos to the entire team! Made my day. Cheers!!!💥💥

"The big bong theory" loveeee you abir da

Loved the cryptic way movie rolled and conveyed everything.

Trust me it never works. Its only the mystery in the beginning which looks fascinating. Everything else is just what they want together and what kind of people they are.

Classic! Classic! Classic! Aami jemni chaaisilaam, omni shesh korse. ❤️

I could relate well to this video. I hate discreet people, ‘coz I’ve myself fallen for such people a number of times, just madly crazy, perhaps 4 times in life, only to be frustrated by the mystery & every time I finally gave up. Human character is so complex & mysterious, unfathomably novel.

I mean wow, each dialogue is written and spoken so well , with so much thoughtfulness in order to express the depth of the message which is to be conveyed. Wonderful!

Khoob bhalo casting and acting very nice

May the readers of comments live peacefully and happily ❤️

I don't why but it kinda comforts me

The character of Anjan and Maya is really a passionate and while watching this short movie the inner happiness of a human will arose with so many thoughts

Interesting the mystery behide story😍

Different kind of love and a new thought . Lots of Love from Dhaka Bangladesh.

such a beautiful story with lots of love

Nice story.. ABIR is superb... I am always prefer his film.... Life is without mystery has no history..... I like the theme... And the best thing is that the box that is the representative of our wish in heart... When it's closed... That wants to tell audience that he wants to end up his desire..... Awesome !!??

The director has an affinity towards showing people falling in love with people's voices. (Antaheen)

Thanks Aniruddha sir for spreading your magic again. we , bengali are used to getting this From long ago .... Nice to watch her again also 💓

That line where he says now you sound like western song❤️❤️❤️

SPEECHLESS LOVE IT❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️I LOVE IT REALLY AWESOME & SPECIALLY HERO'S SWAG

100 out of 100 for everything. Story, dialogues, direction, editing, actors selection. A boy is brought up in female dominated atmosphere, conditions. He loses his originality very fast, and so the flavour of life. Generally gets attracted towards a bold girl, which very much suites to his originality.....the final shot proves it. Hats off sirji. Wish you all the best.

That piano rhythm at the end of the video is so sensuous 🌸

what a brilliant piece of art!

Is it the long version of the Sharmlia Tagore and the stranger's love story from the film Antaheen...it might be...both of them are made by the same man.

millions of applaud to director n script writer.

This appears to me as a poetry more than a film......Fantastic!!!

Very nice movie,dialogue delivery of the actress is very down to earth

Amazing ऐसा भी होता है। ऐसा लगा जैसे उस बैग में उसने सारी उम्मीद और प्रेम रख दिया है, एक अनजान मोहब्बत भी जबरदस्त होती है।

Excellent movie