TUNGRUS Flying Film Festival Review – Rooster Meets His Comeuppance

Mother, father, two grown sons and one grown daughter, an elderly housemaid, two cats and a six-month old rooster live in a small Mumbai apartment… 

Sound like the opening of a good joke?

TUNGRUS, a short film by Rishi Chandna, is charming, funny, and very dark-- if you are the rooster.

Deepak Nambiar, the cinematographer, probably spent a day with the Bhardi family, capturing their benign reactions to the rooster, who was purchased by senior Bhardi as a plaything for the cats.  Though village-raised and familiar with chickens, senior Bhardi and his cats were no match for the increasingly dominant playmate.  In interviews, no family member raises their voice about the bird who eats their food, walk on their computers,  flies into their faces, and poops everywhere—endlessly.  Yet, they all dislike him.  Though the cats did not speak, their distain was evident.

Could this calm in the face of a small terror be the result of Ghandi-like resistance?

Or is it faith in the village-based wisdom of the father, who knows why you raise a chicken?

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Photos courtesy of FLYING FILM FESTIVAL