It has been five years since Apurva Asrani’s last work, Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (2020), was released. In the interim, the writer and editor wrote three series that have yet to see the light of day. More importantly, that pause coincided with a personal loss — he lost his father in 2023. Asrani’s upcoming short film, The Pact, was born from that grief. 

“I had known my father as a strong, strict, larger-than-life personality. Vulnerability wasn’t part of his language,” started the writer, when we got on a call with him. “As I saw him become dependent — say, when I had to lift him and take him to the washroom — I realised he believed his vulnerability was a burden on the family. I kept trying to talk to him, but I didn’t have the wisdom to offer comfort. I loved him dearly, but I was also afraid of him. That generation believed discipline and distance mattered. I wished we had found a language, but men usually don’t.”