SFW's Best Shorts of 2015

These were the most popular, the most watched and our favorite short films of the year. Each film and film-maker told personal stories and took the form in a new direction. Each one was awesome and unique, and made a place for themselves in our mind!

1) Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro: Minutes before being Halal-ed, Rahim the Murga rushes through the story of his life. Exuberant, fast-paced, this dark comedy written & directed by Devashish Makhija & Rajat Nagpal, can be re-watched dozens of times, with you discovering something new about it on every viewing.

2) I Love You Too...: This is not your bachpan-walla Rahul & Anjali love story. Set inside the head of a disturbed Rahul as he walks towards his Anjali with a knife, the film re-tells their love story from their first meeting to it's gruesome end.  Hypnotic, disturbing and hilarious and deeply ironic, I Love You Too...is the perfect antidote to the . Aadish Keluskar's feature debut Kaul premiered at MAMI, 2015.

3) Knives: A nostalgia trip through a lazy summer should not be so dangerous. A young boy, bored at his job, believes that the knife-sharpener who works in their parking lot is a serial killer who has turned his small town into a hunting ground. Knives is one of the most gripping thrillers we have seen in a while, tense and filled with dread, but also a sense of tender nostalgia about a lost time in childhood, and seen like a memory in a snow-globe.  Wonderful film from a director who will be doing some awesome work soon.

4) Mehfuz: Rohit Pandey's Mehfuz (Safe) is a grim film about people on the edge of society, denatured by their constant contact with death. The short film features Nawazuddin Siddiqui as corpse burner searching for a connection in a world where he is barely visible. Mehfuz was released as a part of the short film anthology Shorts (2013) and was the winner of many international awards.

5) Sold: Sold is a hilarious character sketch of a writer who has just sold his film script in Hollywood and wants to take a break from L.A. and see something “real.” Neil is offensive, self-centered, and lonely, and you can tell the polite people he meets are not sure what to make of him. The film has more cringe-inducing moments per minute than we can count and you will either cover your eyes in discomfort or laugh-out-loud.

6) Time Machine: An SFW original film, Time Machine is a story about childhood, ambition, family, falling in love and putting all that at risk by making the world's first working Time Machine.

7) L: The ‘L’ in the short film stands for 'Learner', the hand-made signs stuck on the back of vehicles carrying a new driver. This sweet and simple film by Amit Masurkar (Sulemaani Keeda) is about three learners, a house-wife who learns to ride a bike and her husband and son that learn that she is made of stronger stuff than they give her credit for. A simple tale that is definite watch.

8) Pen Chor: 48 hours film-making competitions are tricky and Ankur Kapoor sent us his absolutely laugh out loud hilarious gem about Montek Singh Parker, a notorious pen burgler and his descent into the grim world of Pen Crime.

9) Mannat: Mannat is a sweet film about the friendship between a performing dwarf and a struggling actor as they sit outside Shahrukh Khan's home, waiting to catch a glimpse of the super-star. Directed by Ensia Mirza, the film was part of the Dimensions Mumbai line-up of short films at Jio Mami Film Festival, 2015.

10) Arrey Baba: This is a superb short film starring Girish Kulkarni and Gauri Deshpande about a father and daughter walking home after a momentous change in the girl's life. The film is incredibly intimate, and in the space of a few minute, filled with more soul and generosity than we have seen in many feature films.

This was a superb year for films in general but a momentous year for short films in India. And trust us, it is only going to get better in 2016.