Junak Baruah wants to win the prestigious short film competition in his university. But with hundreds of participants and a stellar jury on board, winning means making a film that's never been made before.
And that means breaking the rules and taki...
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"AITA!!" Junak shouted, running towards the house. "Aita, aita, aita!"
"I'm here, I'm here." His grandmother stepped out into the backyard, smiling. "Aiyo, I sent you to watch but it seems like joined them?" she exclaimed, eyeing her grandson. After getting out of the freezing water, he had discarded his wet shirt and wrapped one of his grandfather's heavy shawls around himself, but his pants were still wet and water dripped from his hair and onto his shoulders.
"Yes. Dikhou taught me how to fish!" Junak was so giddy with excitement, he could barely stand still. "And I caught one. Jatin, show her, show her, show her."
The young man chuckled and walked up to Grandma. He held a bucket in his hands, inside of which were over a dozen fish. "Junak-da caught this one," he pointed at a half-dead fish looking no different from the rest.
"Waah, it's so big," Grandma exclaimed. "Well done, my son."
Junak beamed. His chest felt light and his heart was warm. He briefly glanced at Dikhou who stood a few feet away, smiling at him. When Dikhou felt the latter's gaze on him, he winked and shot him a thumbs up.
Junak blamed the flush in his cheeks to the euphoria from fish-catching.
"What is going on here?" Banhi asked, lazily walking out of the house. She was wearing a worn-out hoodie over grey sweatpants and her hair was messily tied up in a bun. Walking up behind her was Priti, in a mekhela sador and light green sweater. Both of them were smiling curiously.
Junak ran up to them. "I caught a fish!" He grabbed Banhi by the arm and pulled her towards the bucket full of fish while beckoning at Priti to follow them. "This one. I caught this one. With my bare hands."
"What do you mean bare hands?" Banhi said.
"I mean bare hands." He wriggled his fingers in front of her face. They smelled disgusting.
"No!"
"Yes!"
Banhi laughed. "Oh my god!"
Junak puffed out his chest in pride.
"Well, pick it up, then! Imma take a picture."
That Junak spent the next five minutes holding a disgusting-looking half-dead fish next to his face and posing for the camera did not seem to bother anyone. Rather, his joy was contagious, with Grandma, Dikhou, Priti and Jatin all smiling at him.
The photoshoot was finally brought to an end when Dikhou announced his leave.
"Wait, wait, take the fish and go," Grandma said.
Junak held his own fish in both hands and watched as his grandmother went through the pile of fish in the bucket. She kept one for herself and distributed the rest between Dikhou, Jatin and Priti. All three of them tried to bargain down the number of fishes they received but Grandma shooed them away.
