It happens that short films turn out to be just …too short. It is indeed with a touch of frustration that viewers part ways with Lovely and her newly hired employee, gathered around their salvaged clothing dummy. But let’s be kind and rewind.
Lovely & Tip Top screened at Indian Film Festival Los Angeles
Welcome to Hathipaon, a seemingly sleepy Himalayan village, and more particularly to Lovely & Tip Top, discreetly nestled on a sloping curve – the only hosiery and lingerie shop for miles around, despite resembling a bazaarish souvenir shop. There, a gallery of characters parades through the boutique, much to the fascination of the young mechanic across the street, who seems secretly more attracted to the fashion industry than to motorbikes.
In the streets, broadcast loudly on omnipresent loudspeakers, the Ministry of Belongings gently reminds the population of their duty to the nation. What may appear somewhat dystopian for India now appears to mirror practices of certain neighboring countries, not to name them. And on this particular morning, it instructs that any shops having its signage being marked with a yellow cross overnight is summoned for an official inquiry. A worrying news for Miss Lovely, the shop owner.
Lovely and Tip Top specializes in rather flamboyant pieces of lingerie. An anxious bride-to-be is dismayed when a feathered bra arrives without accompanying panties. The reason? The tailoring village that has produced these garments for centuries specializes only in tops, deeming bottoms to be vulgar (another nod to an adjacent nation’s centralized collectivization?) Determined to please her, Lovely asks the young neighbor to watch her shop and hops on a bus to convince them to produce the missing piece, without forgetting to bring with her the report cards of all her “class-toppers'” family, her sole official ID documents.
“The document might state that you belong here, but does the document belong to you? I recommend you submit a joke with your document; it may strengthen your case.”
Yuki Elias is not exactly a new kid on the block, even though “Lovely & Tip Top” marks her cinematic debut. As the daughter of a renowned documentarist and photographer in Mumbai, and trained in theatre arts in Paris or London, she already has an extensive career, including winning the META Award for Best Actor for “Elephant in the Room,” a production she also directed.
It is noteworthy that the film was produced while balancing a corporate life as a communication coach, making the film’s elaborated and polished execution even more impressive given that the set design looks far from improvised. Indeed, alongside her cinematographer Viral Sinh Gohil, they present a masterclass in modern filmmaking techniques, featuring the now-omnipresent drone tracking shots, combined with populated fixed shots and unconventional close-ups, all executed with a purpose.
However, such skill in filmmaking isn’t entirely surprising in Bollywood’s realm. Nevertheless, the inspiration extends beyond India’s mainstream, closer to Ritwik Ghatak‘s universe (“Ajantrik“) and the Parallel Cinema movement. Absurdist Kafkaesque comedy theatre certainly may have influenced the scenario, but the film leans more towards the social surreal found in a certain Japanese cinema (Hirokazu Koreeda, Katsuhito Ishii), and even more towards the French dreamlike scene of the early 00s (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro, Michel Gondry). And despite a sequence as brilliant as improbable ending the movie, it seems nevertheless…too short !
