While working a white-collar job, the small-town-based Mayur (Nishant Kumar) finds it difficult to relate to a world where his patriarchal view is shaken to now find himself taking orders from women. This has already transformed him into a killer, and as the story progresses, a psychoanalysis of his sick and dark mind is revealed.
“With Love from a Killer” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
Frankly, “With Love from a Killer” was a highly troublesome short. Where it shines the most is the technical aspects which are quite well-accomplished. The idea of the initial kill being Mayur's point of view adds a highly engrossing immediacy to the situation while the brutality of the scene carries the whole sequence quite nicely. A romance sequence that features Mayur coming to meet Poonam is a soft, more intimate series of events that comes off better than expected. That is matched with the feverish scene in the apartment where the police force attempt to arrest Mayur while the entire sequence is illuminated with the fluorescent lighting strung up around the area. The action in the scene and keeping everything brightly lit with the bizarre lighting makes for a great choice, that's highly enjoyable and visually enticing. That's the best aspect of the short, which isn't all that much but does have some positive aspects.
However, there are major flaws here that nearly doom this all together. The biggest issue is the manner that it delves into Mayur's psyche to show off the archaic values and norms he professes to be killing over. The entire premise of him snapping because he can't believe that he has to answer to a woman in the first place is unbelievably misogynistic and utterly erodes any sense of fear from his actions. Rather than point out his backward thinking, these actions are celebrated and praised as a scene featuring a group of locals wanting him to punish a wife for failing her duties portrays everything as a glamourous activity. Even his prioritizing of the status quo regarding the purpose for killing people by trying to tie his reasoning as like a lion hunting his prey makes for a poor analogy to write off his treatment of women. It's all a part of what drags this down significantly.
In the end, “With Love from a Killer” has the makings of a fine short entry if only the politics involved in the killer's backstory and motivations weren't as troubling and problematic as they are. Since it's a big hurdle to get over in enjoying this one, really only viewers who are capable of overlooking these elements will enjoy it even without any other obvious drawbacks on display.
