Céline Roustan
As it is Valentine’s Day, it is only natural that today’s film pick is a love story. Well, the beginning of one at least, as we lay our scene in fair Mysore, India in the 80s. Two graduates go out on their first date after a dance competition, but will their differing backgrounds get in the way of their mutual attraction? In Mysore Magic, director Abijeet Achar crafts a sweet romance story replete with humor and a striking visual flair, that is carried by two strong and endearing protagonists.
I have a fascination for the origin of the stories that grow into the shorts we feature, and Mysore Magic has a cute backstory—it is based on how Achar’s Mauritian mother and Indian father met! The director shared with us that “The personal ties are certainly visceral – but over the course of development I’ve come to find even deeper connections than I originally knew”. The American-based director also added, “While immigrant idealism is the foundation of my parents’ story, it’s also my own as an immigrant myself”. Cowritten with producer and EP Alex Woodruff, the film has the necessary sweet, romantic layer of two people experiencing the spark of life-altering connection, but the film is not pure spun sugar—it does not shy away from addressing the racial and class differences that were unusual for a couple at the time. Achar confesses that one of his main goals was to get “our audience to feel the humanity and hope of the people behind the term ‘immigrant’ long before their eventual westward journey”.
Aishwarya Sonar as Premi and Siddarth Kusuma as Vasu embody their characters’ bond with sensitivity.
The film has an impressive transportive quality to it—both temporally and geographically—however viewers may be surprised to learn it was shot in Atlanta, a remarkable fact that goes to show how production design and VFX can do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to creating movie magic. Achar divulged to us that the production’s recreation of 80s Mysore heavily relied on adding the iconic Mysore Palace into the background as the architecture is easily recognizable to a South Asian audience. For the general visual language of the film and its energy, we can see that they were inspired by Bollywood films, especially given the importance of the dance sequences. The color palette of the film complements perfectly the setting of the story with the burgeoning romance between Premi and Vasu while giving the film a very pleasant look. And, just like in Bollywood films, the dance parts are integral parts of the narrative and were carefully choreographed by co-producer Anusha Hussaini, who mixed disco with more classical Indian dances to match the characters’ personalities.
Yet more than look, we know that romance stories rely on chemistry—to entertain, but also give a film its emotional weight. Both Aishwarya Sonar as Premi and Siddharth Kusuma as Vasu embody their characters’ bond with a delightful sensitivity. From their undeniable attraction to the awkwardness of the situation without forgetting their different perspectives on the world, they are an easy couple to root for and infuse the film with an incredibly contagious joy.
Ahead of its online premiere, Mysore Magic hit the festival circuit in 2023 with multiple selections including the Palm Springs ShortFest. Achar is currently developing and in the financing stages of the feature adaptation of the film, while also working on new shorts in different capacities with his company Pineapple Cut Pictures, which he co-founded with Woodruff.