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The viral Sujoy Ghosh short film seems an awful lot like a Spanish animation short released in 2009
Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; July 27, 2015)

The director of Kahaani puts out a short film online and it goes viral. Obviously, it’s been three years since we saw his last film. And at first glance, he’s got it all down perfectly well in this Bengali short. A cast full of known actors — Soumitra Chatterjee, Radhika Apte and Tota Roy Chowdhury and a story, inspired by an oft-told tale from the Ramayan, that gives you the creeps. Perfect short film material, it was bound to go viral. But for the well-travelled cinema buff, this plot device concerning a set of dolls, seemed a lot like a little-known gem called Alma. It couldn’t have been plain coincidence, could it?

Of course, you haven’t heard of this Spanish animation short and that’s probably because it pre-dates the film that changed Sujoy’s fortunes. And our immediate memory only stretches to his last outing (because, seriously who remembers Aladin and Home Delivery?). 2009 is so long ago and while it was popular in its country of origin, Alma never quite found fame here...

Let’s study the two films up close...




Sujoy Ghosh Reacts:
"I have been accused of being inspired from some 20 different sources and each has accused me with equal conviction! So now I have to decide which one to go with. But jokes aside, I guess there are always some similarities you can find in anything creative and that’s the greatest thing about art. Somewhere you identify... but that doesn’t mean that every love story where a boy meets girl is Romeo and Juliet"
– Sujoy Ghosh, Filmmaker