What does love look like when you’ve been married 27 years? What rituals do we create to keep that connection going when the days and years begin to blur together? And how do you keep going when life throws a curveball at these rituals? These questions are at the heart of the short film, Thursday Special, which recently won the Most Poetic Film award at the Küstendorf Film Festival in Serbia. The film has been directed by Andheri East filmmaker Varun Tandon and co-written by him and his sister Krati Tandon—the siblings behind the celebrity-favourite attar brand, Boond Fragrances.

The 26-minute film, starring Anubha Fatehpuria and Ramakanth Dayama, is a tender depiction of an elderly couple with a shared passion for food, and a cherished Thursday ritual around it. “In 2017, I got this idea about an aged couple close to retirement and the small rituals they follow to help them get through the mundaneness of life. The idea just stuck with me. In 2020, I decided to finally make the film, but then the COVID pandemic happened,” says Varun, who has also won a National Award for his previous short film, Syaahi (available to watch for free on YouTube).