MELBOURNE, 20 August 2026: After the star‑studded opening days of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2026 — featuring Rekha, Rani Mukerji, Pankaj Tripathi, Dulquer Salmaan, Nikhil Advani and Rishab Shetty — a quieter but deeply affecting work stood out: the short film Between Cradles, by first‑time filmmaker Sanket Gupta.
Running just 20 minutes, the Marathi/Hindi‑language film stars Sobita Kudtarkar, Anjali Joshi, Nyra Varun Chhabra, Jija Nandawate, Gayatri Bansode, Bhakti Athawale, Amruta Suresh and Vishwajeet Shinde. It follows Suman, a young widow with a newborn, who is forced to leave her baby with an elderly neighbour so she can work as a nanny for a toddler in an affluent corporate family. While Suman successfully cares for the child at work, her own newborn is deprived of a mother’s presence. Sanket Gupta describes how the film came about:
The film lays bare India’s stark class divide: as urban elite women take on corporate responsibilities, the domestic and emotional costs are often borne by less privileged caregivers. Between Cradles turns this structural inequality into an intimate, tense drama, where the interactions between two women — and a third who briefly enters their world — become a quiet but powerful commentary on privilege, labour and motherhood.
Gupta, a Bengaluru‑based corporate employee who wrote, directed and edited the film, handles the subject with restraint and control, balancing class dynamics, urban isolation and the pangs of motherhood without melodrama. In an industry dominated by mainstream, star‑driven cinema, Between Cradles is a reminder of what socially conscious storytelling can achieve. Well done, Sanket Gupta and team — and credit to IFFM for platforming such work.
Name – Between Cradles
Duration – 20 minutes
Cast – Sobita Kudtarkar, Anjali Joshi, Nyra Varun Chhabra, Jija Nandawate, Gayatri Bansode, Bhakti Athawale, Amruta Suresh, Vishwajeet Shinde
Director, Writer, Editor – Sanket Gupta
Status – Premiered at the IFFM-2026 (Hoyts, Docklands, Melbourne, 20 August, 2026)
Rating – Four out of 5 stars.
