My first encounter with a matchbox was in my mother’s home temple. For years, I would watch her light the incense sticks until, at 13, I was finally trusted to strike a match on my own. There were always two matchboxes — one kept beside the incense sticks, the other tucked safely inside the drawer, just in case the first ran out. The box I remember most vividly had a drawing of a woman fetching water from a river, surrounded by blooming lotuses. I had always wondered what stories lay behind these simple yet colourful visuals. Then I came across ‘Matchbox Stories’. 

Produced by Studio Chitrakoothu, Aithihya Ashok Kumar drew inspiration from these very matchbox designs, bringing their hidden tales to life through Matchbox Stories, a series of short animated films that celebrate the nostalgia, and storytelling etched onto these everyday objects. These tiny illustrations, often overlooked, have long carried quiet stories within them becoming visual snapshots of Indian life and culture. Each film feels like an ode to nostalgia, transforming what we once saw as ordinary into something meaningful and cinematic.

“The series was an attempt to explore the shortest possible film narratives,” Kumar explains. “It wasn’t planned as a series,  each one came together overnight.” That spontaneity shows in the storytelling. From a family of three riding a bicycle to drop the father off at the factory , the same factory printed on the box , to a lone man rowing his boat into the dawn, these micro-films turn the mundane into magic. The simplicity is intentional; each frame feels like a quiet tribute to forgotten details of everyday life. The music and sounds playing in the background amplify this feeling, by striking the audience's memory and hitting that particular note of nostalgia that takes everyone back to simpler times.

The project has found its way far beyond Indian homes and memories. Matchbox Stories was showcased at the Filumenistic Museum in Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Poland , a museum dedicated entirely to the art of matchbox labels , and was officially selected for the 2021 Future Vision Festival: A Celebration of Unusual Animation (異色アニメ映画祭)

One of my personal favourites from the series is the short inspired by the 'Blade' matchbox, where a row of temple pillars gradually morphs into a blade. Kumar says, “There used to be a blade in our geometry box at school, and if you shaded the negative space inside it with a pencil, it would reveal a shape that always looked like a temple pillar to me. So when I came across a matchbox cover featuring a blade, it felt like the quickest and most natural transition.”

Matchbox Stories slows us down and spotlights the beauty in the small and familiar. Each frame reimagines something we’ve all seen but rarely looked at — a bird, a blade, a bicycle — and opens our eyes to the stories behind these objects. In a time when we’re constantly rushing ahead, Matchbox Stories reminds us to pause, appreciate the simple things in life, and let our imagination take over. My flatmate has been collecting matchboxes and for the longest while I viewed them as mere objects, but now, after watching the series and speaking with its creator, they’ve come to mean something more to me. They're not just collectibles, but tiny stories and pockets of nostalgia.

You can check out the entire series here.

If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:

Maachis Is Turning Vintage Matchbox Labels Into A Living Archive

Bangladeshi Artist Ishmam Reimagines Bengali Posters Through Vibrant Matchbox Art

Animated Film 'Ghughuti Ki Maala' Captures The Heritage of Uttarakhand’s Ghughutiya Festival