In deciding where to spend their holidays, a family attempts to navigate through a democratic process to determine the destination. With family members arguing over the importance of each member's vote, they turn to making a pros and cons list to decide. However, once the family embarks on a trip an event happens that makes them question the entire Democratic process.
“Democracy” presents itself as a comedic short film that somewhat mocks the concept of democracy through simplifying it to the interaction among family members in choosing which relatives to visit. This approach offers up a lot of humorous quips, marking the script as one of the best aspects of the production. Within the production, there are many different instances that that can be highlighted to reflect an understanding of good comedic timing.
Although the short film delivers as a comedy, its message feels a bit muddied by an unnatural situation. Granted this may stem from own experiences, but I don't think many can recall having any deciding vote in their parents' decisions as kids. This is somewhat reflected in the sentiment that the kids represent the general public, whose opinion actually does matter very little in the end process. However, it does make the dialogue feel unnatural and awkward when delivered from the children.
The performances from the kids are limited due to age and understanding of the subject matter and don't really need a critique. However, the two actors in the role of parents do an admirable job of tackling the film's comedic moments. Their timing and feeding off of the others personality adds a great amount of success in keeping a comedic tone. In particular, the father plays the archetype of the ‘bumbling dad' to some great laughs.
Visually the production is rather simplistic, with a majority of the film taking place at a dinner table. Although the production does not offer much in diversity, it is still competently shot and there are no awkward cuts or framing. Overall, both the visuals and the score act to serve the plot, and is successful in this regard.
“Democracy” had me quite amused through some great dialogue and campy performances. However, there was a definite disconnect in terms of realism in the dialogue and context. Overall, the production is bound to make the viewer chuckle, if it truly is “Based on a True Joke” director Aditya Agnihotir knows how to breath life into a simple comedic concept.
