Milk, Rice, and the Blood

This Indian look at organised crime and violence has a serious message about urban cruelty, but it’s hidden in a complex storyline and laboured acting.

In short film, Milk, Rice, and the Blood, there’s a tense beginning with off-screen screaming and drowning noises, which raises the audience’s expectations, before the opening scenes in present-day urban Maharashtra, Western India. Two young men are deciding to become flatmates: Pradip (Swapnil Badnale), who has just moved to the city, and is moving in with Ashish (Ashish Bisht). Soon the two are in a state of bachelor bliss - unwashed dishes in a cramped kitchen, cheap décor and wipe-clean lino everywhere, and usual bickering over sharing the flatmates’ living expenses and (significantly, given the title) milk.

Pradip cheerfully assures Ashish that he’s happy to crash out on the flat’s floor rather than have a bed, as he’s been doing this since childhood, showing his less-than-wealthy and rural upbringing. He later explains his father is a farmer, and this small-town naivety probably explains why, when he takes a walk, he unwisely accepts a lift from men he doesn’t seem to know. The audience also meets Padip’s brother, everyman Siddharth (played by writer and director Doke Saurabh), who has arrived to find out what happened to Pradip after the latter was abducted after the lift.

There’s a violent kidnapping scene by the Gavali brothers (Aditya and Sandesh Mantri) with Tarantino-esque torture sessions of waterboarding, which takes place before the drowning scene heard off-screen at the beginning, making it feel like an Indian take on a small-scale Lock, Stock. There’s the same profanity-peppered free-flowing dialogue as the kidnappers wonder if they will get the “evil eye” from their victim and discuss the best way to hide him to prevent this. However, some of the actors only manage to look vaguely worried or threatening as this happens, which reduces the suspense.

There’s a subplot with a female colleague who may or may not be cheating on her partner, and a peaceful scene where Padip sits by the river and talks about his village, and these random calmer moments are surrounded by the kidnapping/torture scenes.

Plot strands on the underbelly of criminal society include men posing as food sellers who get unwary homeowners to open their doors to take the supposedly free vegetables. They then break in to attack their victims like an Indian take on Funny

Games (1997) until the viewer half expects a character to address the audience in some fourth-wall-breaking.

The estimated budget on IMDB of $4,025 plus the short running time - at only 45 minutes, it’s barely a feature - explains the reduced amount of locations. There are also some odd errors, such as when a tied-up victim somehow manages to stand upright despite being beaten unconscious.

Milk’s non-linear timeline can make the plot difficult to follow, and the acting in this drama/thriller could be politely described as stylised, which doesn’t help. Saurabh has created an interesting look at the underside of Indian crime, but it needs slightly more convincing acting.