‘Aakhri Ride’: How Vijesh Rajan and Yashoda Parthasarthy crafted a quirky horror short

Horror takes on a completely new meaning in the short film, Aakhri Ride. Released on Halloween’s eve on the YouTube channel Oh Short Flips, the 24-minute film is about a desperate migrant cab driver, Aman, who is struggling to make ends meet in Mumbai. Forced to work endlessly to secure money for his sister’s wedding, Aman has to deal with his abusive boss on a fateful night when a mysterious passenger further adds to his problems. The real horror Aman faces is far removed from the supernatural. He lives through hell every day on Mumbai streets, with only his car to call home.The short film, helmed by Vijesh Rajan and Yashoda Parthasarthy, has a cheeky subversion in its tone. The two got the idea of a cab-driver protagonist during their long cab rides from work. During these rides, Vijesh and Yashoda often discussed different ideas. “Aakhri Ride was born out of observing the cab driver sitting in front, who is lost in his own world, getting different phone calls. He was tackling his own crises while we would sit in luxury. The contrast was striking,” says Yashoda.Before Aakhri Ride, Vijesh and Yashoda pitched feature films and shows for five years, and that journey had its share of rejections. “We wanted to get into writing and direction, but nothing was working out,” says Vijesh. That’s when they reached out to their long-time friend, producer Ranjan Singh, who told them to make something and not worry about anything else. “We took the idea of Aakhri Ride to him, and he was ready to support it. He was like Gandalf walking with us to the end of the world,” adds Vijesh, crediting Ranjan for bringing Anurag Kashyap and Vasan Bala as presenters for the film.Ranjan suggested the duo to make the film first and worry about distribution after. Being horror film buffs, they wanted to bring those elements into the story, but with their own twist. The writing process involved finding out what would actually scare Aman. His horrors lie in the constant follow-up calls from his boss, his sister’s distressed pleas from his village, and also in the intimidation of cops, who stop his car and take advantage of his powerlessness. The two spoke with cab drivers while researching for the story. A still from ‘Aakhri Ride’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement “What Aman goes through in the film is based on several true stories that we heard from cab drivers. Once they stopped complaining about traffic, all of them had a lot to share from their personal lives,” says Vijesh. “A lot of them are also quite optimistic and told us that they are driving only for a short time. One driver even told us that he is a B.Tech engineer but had to be a cab driver.”Aman became the culmination of these stories, representing the plight of all migrant workers. Yashoda and Vijesh bring a sensitive understanding to their portrayal of Aman, knowing when to give space for his emotional turmoil and when to embrace his quirks. A layer of comedy runs through the film, whether in the voice of Aman’s friend on the phone, giving him shady ideas to get money, or the way Aman struggles to rob a lady, forgetting his knife in the car. The writer-director duo infused a sense of goodness to the character, which is evident in his name as well.“He is someone who tries to avoid conflict, even when his boss shouts at him constantly. He stays subservient because that’s his job. We wanted to keep building pressure on him to see if he would choose the dark path. It is his failure as a human being that he just can’t do that,” explains Vijesh.Yashoda says they took some classic Bollywood tropes to build the story. “That’s why there is a morally relatable hero, a villain in the form of a ghost, a friend who gets our hero in trouble, and a cop coming in at the end. We wanted to bring our own twist to this familiar structure,” she says.Aakhri Ride also marks the directorial debut of Vijesh and Yashoda. The two worked as VFX artists and title designers on films and shows like CTRL, Raman Raghav 2.0, Inside Edge, Made in Heavenand Ghoul, among others. The new role has been a welcome change for Yashoda. “Now when someone asks me what I do, I say I am a filmmaker. I feel like I have come out of a closet because earlier no one would understand what VFX or animation is,” Yashoda smiles. A still from ‘Aakhri Ride’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Vijesh recalls feeling a certain euphoria during the casting process when they saw videos of actors performing the scenes. “We heard the dialogues that we wrote being performed. It was a special moment. We have written so much in the past but this was the first time we saw someone emote our words. We were constantly pinching ourselves,” he says.He also admits feeling anxious during the shoot, noting the differences between direction and animation. “In animation, there is a layered process where you start seeing the image forming along the way. But during a shoot, nothing is finalised until we capture it on camera and we are satisfied with it. That brought some trepidation as we are used to working with a structure,” Vijesh explains.Having worked together for a decade, Vijesh and Yashoda share a strong rapport. “We give each other the space to share our individual opinions. Over the years, we have built a trust which guides us to collaborate,” Yashoda says, before concluding, “More people should try out working together. It is fun. At the end of the day, filmmaking is all about collaboration.”Aakhri Ride is currently streaming on YouTube