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In ‘Abracadabra’, filmmaker Amay Mehrishi transforms a routine Mumbai school bus ride into a poignant coming-of-age drama. Following 12-year-old Agastya as he grapples with rejection, guilt, and identity after his best friend chooses to sit elsewhere, the short film captures the emotional complexity of childhood with remarkable tenderness and insight.
One of the most terrifying things about childhood is that you don’t understand the rules, and yet you are expected to play the game perfectly. In filmmaker Amay Mehrishi’s graduation project, ‘Abracadabra’, what appears to be an ordinary bus ride home from school becomes the setting for an intimate coming-of-age story that touches on the complexity of how children carry guilt, love, and desire before they can fully articulate their feelings.
The 19-minute short film follows the pre-adolescent protagonist Agastya (Advay Pradhan), whose familiar world is upended when his best friend, Naman (Arsh Victor Suri), unexpectedly sits with a girl on the bus. What begins as a seemingly insignificant moment gradually spirals into an emotional reckoning as Agastya grapples with rejection, guilt, longing, and the pressure to fit in.
Shot in a handheld, observational style, ‘Abracadabra’ embraces the transient nature of childhood, allowing the bus itself to become both setting and metaphor. As the vehicle gradually empties and the noise fades into silence, the film invites audiences to relive the formative experiences that define growing up — the slow-fading of once-inseparable friends, the pull of love, the embarrassment of admitting attraction for another, the weight of society’s expectations, and the loneliness that encompasses it all.
For Mehrishi, ‘Abracadabra’ is rooted in deeply personal memories of the school bus rides that shaped his own childhood. Inspired by the fragile, fleeting world of the journey home — the noise, silences, shifting alliances, and emotional undercurrents that adults rarely pay attention to anymore — the film seeks to capture the complexity of children’s inner lives before they possess the language to express them. Set within the moving confines of a bus, the film presents what Mehrishi describes as “a microcosm of tenderness, cruelty, love, and desire”, arguing that the emotional language of childhood transcends cultural boundaries.
‘Abracadabra’ received a top prize at the Mo & Friese Junges Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg (Young Short Film Festival) and premiered at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in the Generations Kplus Competition 2026.
About the filmmaker:
Amay Mehrishi is an Indian filmmaker based between London and India, and a recent graduate from the London Film School, where he earned his Master’s in Filmmaking. He previously earned a Bachelor’s in Marketing and Innovation from the National University of Singapore, a foundation that deepened his understanding of audience, narrative, and creative strategy — skills that now enrich his filmmaking practice.
Follow @abracadabra.shortfilm on Instagram.
