Malayalam short ‘The Ants’ gives a peek into the life of ants

Director Nandu Nandan chats about the idea behind filming ants in the short ‘The Ants’, shot on his phone

Ever wondered how much effort ants put in to earn their daily bread? A Malayalam short film, The Ants, directed by Nandu Nandan gives you a peek into the world of ants. A “fantasy short”, the over 8-minute short gets up close with a group of sugar ants as they manage to lug home a granule of laddoo, even at great risk from a mop-wielding human! “I shot using a smartphone sans any computer graphics. Once I saw two ants lugging a piece of tapioca chips and taking them to an ant hole in my parents’ room and shot it on my phone. It came out well and so I tried imagining how they would take away another nugget of food. My plan was to upload the video on Instagram. I kept a granule of laddoo and, as expected, they began carrying it to their home. That is when I thought of making a story around the whole process, like how the laddoo came there and what happens after they take it,” says Nandu, an IT professional working at Infopark in Kochi.