User Reviews

Always a good idea not to learn too much about a short film before seeing it and while this holds true sometimes even this might prejudice an opinion before seeing it . Let me explain . I saw the synopsis to PARANOIA " Man sits on a train in India and suspects the man in front of him might be a terrorist " . So far so good but then when I watched it I was struck by an important little fact - it's an animated short . ! Nothing wrong with that in itself but I did spend much of the four minute running time wondering how the on screen story might have been realised if it was live action . As it stands the animation is pretty good and the storyline holds the attention

The story itself might be somewhat universal but this is an Indian film . So what ? you might ask but in the last few years you might be shocked to learn that after Iraq India holds the unwanted honour of being the most prolific target of terrorism . Some of the terrorists are Kashmiri nationalists , some of them are Pakistani based Jihadists and some of them are homegrown Indian terrorists backed by Pakistan . This constant targeting of India by terrorists is reflected in the fact that it's far harder to enter India than say Israel

On a late night train travelling across India, a young man starts to let his nerves get the better of him as he becomes convinced that the shadowy man sitting opposite him is someone who intends to blow up the train with a suitcase bomb.

This is a simple yet very effective short film that succeeds because of how well it puts the viewer into the situation and the mindset of the main character. It is comical in some ways because, as the title suggests, we know the character is being a little crazy as he lets his imagination run away with him, but even as this is going on, the film plays out on his side. As a result it does get pretty tense as it builds towards a nice cut and a satisfyingly open ending (not open in terms of narrative, but I liked the way that we know that the paranoia will continue).

The animation is very good indeed, with some of it looking very realistic (the swaying handles for example) but all of it has character and it is well created in terms of shot framing and the flow. This works well with the sound design, which captures the feeling of the train but also uses it to add to the building sense of tension and the rather claustrophobic nature of the setting. It is this sense of tension that makes it work well and it is a very nicely constructed piece of animation as a result.