COFFEE AND SEA – AIMLESSNESS OF INDIAN YOUTH BY GANESH YALLAPRAGADA & KARTHIK YALLAPRAGADA
Directed by Ganesh Yallapragada & Karthik Yallapragada/ Reviewed by Biplab Das
Coffee and Sea is an intense social drama. This almost 30-minute long short film talks about the lives of the lives of two youngsters. The film highlights how the loneliness out of boredom creates waywardness and aimlessness. The film is really well thought out and the director had a plan of highlighting the frustrations of Indian youth. However, there are multiple facets in the film too which I will discuss later. The film also somehow deals with the depression issue that every Indian talks about these days.
The target audience of this film is primarily the adult. A large portion of the youth will also able to connect with the film. It is not an entertaining film. It deals with serious matter of our society. The audience of the film needs to be matured. The film has an open-ended ending which might become unwanted for some audience. 
However, the pacing of the film is so smooth that people will hook into it eventually. The characters of the film can be easily found in our society. There are some moments in the film that are funny but they are too subtle.
The director-duo of the film Ganesh Yallapragada, Karthik Yallapragada considers themselves as an observer of the society. The film shows that they have successfully achieved it. The film has been shot both in colour and black and white. This gives a unique flavor to the film. Visually it looks appealing. The actors in the film are stupendously good. They have given stellar performances. They look young and their frustrations are also very much pertaining to the 21st century. There is not a single bit of amateurish acting in the film. The cinematography of the film is steady and quite good for a short film. Editing has been done really well.
The film talks about the lives of two different young men who don’t know each other but their story is similar. They suffer from the loneliness. One roams around the city aimlessly in search of sea and other feels lonely regardless of a friend and a girlfriend. The name Coffee and Sea signifies the southern part of India. Though the film deals with the issues of loneliness but it has some funny moments. The film also shows the language issue. How people of one state find trouble to communicate with the people of another state has shown in the film. Barring the two characters, the protagonists, there are other characters that did tremendously good acting to prove their presence. However, I believe the main protagonist of the film is the topic- loneliness.
The director-duo has said that it is almost a zero-budget film. However, the honesty and intention to make a good short film was present in the film. The director-duo had done their research on the film, especially about the depression issue. The interesting part of the film is the normality of the society in which the two characters belong. 
The ending of the film is open-ended. The audience can have their own interpretations. But it doesn’t mean the film lacks to penetrate the core issues. The best part of the film is that the directors didn’t show depressing as a vile problem.
I give 4.5 stars out of 5 to Coffee and Sea. It is a really refreshing film. The directors of the film have successfully achieved what they wanted to say. The interesting background score of the film is another moot point to look into the film. In terms of topic, Coffee and Sea has some similarity between the British film ‘Fish Tank’ but Coffee and Sea is 100% Indian. And I’m not saying it is the copy of the ‘Fish Tank’. Coffee and Sea is a worth 30-minute watch.
