Claws & Teeth & Sunflowers

Watched these two Kannada shorts a while back and really loved them.

[**Claws & Teeth**](https://youtu.be/0pxvUkjbb64):

* A group of friends and a villager accidentally kill a tiger and want to make money by selling the claws and teeth.

* Very well written, directed, acted, shot, and sound-designed.

* Ambient sounds and forest sounds are used in a very impactful manner (though I'm not sure how accurate they're). Specially, the way the forest goes quiet when the tiger arrives.

* Using "ಮೂಗನ ಕಾಡಿದರೇನು" and ಝಾಡಿಸಿ ಒದಿ (from ಮೂಗನ ಸೇಡು :D ) as Kaada's soundtrack was a nice, subtle touch.

* Dialogues are to-the-point and natural. The way the story unfolds, you'll be left wondering what exactly the "Claws & Teeth" title means.

* Visually, there are some nice frames and compositions. There are three shots from a hilltop that show Annayya go through a hilly path on three different occassions. They're brilliantly used to show his mental state on those occasions.

[**Sunflowers were the first to know**](https://youtu.be/Nazc-0D8xSI):

* A new interpretation of the ಅಡಗೂಲಜ್ಜಿ story of ಜಂಭದ ಮುದುಕಿ and her ಕೋಳಿ.

* Here, ajji sees and hears omens that say her son is going to die the next day. So, she steals the rooster and the fire to stop the night from ending and save her son.

* The son who curses her for stealing and causing inconvenience

* The son who won't get out of his bed even if he can't sleep

* The son who will happily eat a jackfruit while the people suffer

* The son who says, if the sun never comes up again, we'll simply forget that sunlight ever existed

* When the karnika (ಸದ್ದಲೇ ... ಪರಾಕ್ ಎಂದು ಭವಿಷ್ಯ ನುಡಿಯುವ ಕಾರ್ಣಿಕ) says that the sun won't be back until the ajji's vamsha is finished, the son and the grandson go in search of the old woman.

* Considering that it was shot in 4 days and is entirely shot at night, the lighting work is really good.

* In contrast to Claws and Teeth, here the sound design is very subtle. You know you're in a forest but it simply exists in the background. And that works for the kind of film this is.