May 7, 20202 min read

Blood Brothers short film review

★★

Written by: Sinth Siva

Starring: #ArevinthSarma, #ShahnewazJake, #KituKjr, #EstaireAlberti

In the same vein as 2019’s Blue Story and other gritty dramas exploring British youth gangs and crime, writer-director Sinth Siva attempts to explore the material but with a predictable underdeveloped story. Leaving audiences disappointed despite good intentions, the story of Blood Brothers follows the story of two friends Rik and Krishna and how their lives and friendships are tested as one turns to crime as the other find success in university and the tragedy that occurs when their two worlds collide. Siva’s execution of the story doesn’t break the mould but rather is bogged by logical confusions and hamfisted commentary on the issues and plot points. Even though the script implies that Rik and Krishna are in their late teens beginning university, both actors Arevinth Sarma and Shahnewaz Jake look to both be in their late twenties. Siva can’t immerse audiences into his “realistic” vision for these characters lives, it doesn’t feel like an authentic cautionary tale built from actual experiences and emotions but rather one of those preachy “anti-gang” skits you’d see in a school assembly. The message to Blood Brothers is important, with direct references to knife crime in Britain and how youths potential is robbed because of this culture but Siva can’t deliver anything striking. There’s a lack of emotion to its tragedy, the performances are caught between melodrama and parody for both sides of the conflict and no performer stands out from the monotony. The production value to Siva’s film isn’t groundbreaking but does enough to make Blood Brothers slightly enjoyable and not static. Siva’s use of drone footage and steady cam offers visual variety to the more mundane locations mostly consisting of parks and the quaint town the characters reside in. The musical score from Vernon G Segaram and DJ Flaming Soulja is the highlight of the film, the energetic rhythms injecting Rik and Krishna’s story with the vibrancy that the actors and Siva were unable to bring across on screen. The music makes the film engaging but there are times when it can feel repetitive or out of place as the audio work has its fair share of problems with obvious dubbing at certain points. A sequence where Krishna is chased by “a dog” being a key example to Blood Brothers frustrating technical and narrative failings as the camera cuts constantly shift the character’s direction of running, a dog is never visually established only through the repeated audio clip, the scene does little to inform Rik and Krishna’s friendship and is only entertaining because of the musical score. Blood Brothers feels undeveloped and incomplete, considering the reality behind its subject matter the film’s over-reliance on clichés makes the film unable to strike a real chord with its audience. Its a film with its heart in the right place but when compared to other contemporaries in this niche genre it really has nothing on offer besides more of the same in a less affecting fashion.