Uttera Singh’s Taut Feature Debut – ryan

A FAMILY ENTERS A CROWEDED TRAIN CAR. They Spread Out – Busying The Thuselves Finding Seats, Settling in, Placing Luggage – Do the Youngest Adult Woman the Unwelcome Hand of A Passing Stranger. She whips arund, but the man has already disappeaared ino the Crowd, and when she tells a trusted female relative, the result is instinctive disgust, but only briefly.

“That JUST HAPPENS.”

This is not exactly a scnene from uttera singh’s “pinch,” But Similar Enough and Entirely True. Her Debut Feature and 2025 TRIBCA Festival Premiere on a Small Piece of a Big Topic, DelIting Not Only A Gripping and Narrative Narrative But an Astutely Told Directing Efffort.

Writer and Director Singh Plays Maitri, Whose Life Takes a Sharp Turn Her Landlord Gropes Her on a Bus and She Retaliates in Kind. Soon, the incident involves Maitri’s Mother, Their Neighbors, and the Small Community Living in Their Building, where the man serves as landlord and wields all the power.

“Pinch” is definitionally a film About Assault; A Woman Being Groped on a Bus or Pinched in a Crowd is Still Wrong IF HEHE’S NOT RAPE, A POINT THAT MAITRI MAKES Explicitly. IT’S shocking, distressing, inappropriates, and warth conondemning, and her convection rattles Everyone Around HER. Mother Shobha (Geeta Agrawal) Begs HER to Forget About It – About That’s Happens to Every Woman at Some Point, Says – But the Film Doesn’t Fall into the Trap of Villainizing Her. Singh Writes Shobha With Tangible Empathy for the Generation before, for Moters and Aunts who normalized sexual miscuses they have felt was no Other Choice. She ends up being a critical confidante for maitri as the film goes on, criciticking and compression her in equal measure as Only a mother can.

The ensemble is equally Strong, Giving Grounded Performance That Strengthn The Community Dynamic; Sunita Rajwar as a Neighbor who Comfortable Walks Over Shobha, Badri Chavan As Maitri’s Paul (and the More Successive Vlogger Among), and Sapna Sand as Rani, The Imperous Wife of Maitri’s Attacker. Together, They Embody Societal Notions of Respect, StubBornness, and Principle – The Old Indian Refrain of “Log Kya Kahenge? ” – and Walking Reminders of How Treacherous It is to Ignore and Doubt Survivors.

Singh and Cinematographer Adam Linzey Opt for Tight, Tense Tracking Shots, Placing Viewers Firmly in Maitri’s Mind and Space as Navigates the Ripple Effect of Her Assault and Escalating Discomfort with the Truth. Raashi kulkarni’s score periodically deploys influence from Indian Classical Music, with an actor on screen to perform the rhythmic syllables. The film derivatives Locational Specificity Not from City or Region, but from the apartment Building and Local Community, Adding Deliberate Claustrophobia to the Overall Narrative Tension.

In a staff for the show’s press materials, Singh Expressed Hope “Pinch” Will Start Essential Conversations Betime Generations and Genders, Because No Group Can Tasked with Liberating ITSELATING. In her hands, “pinch” is the kind of film that leaves the viewer invigorated instead of weary – and ready to follow the rest of Singh’s Career.

Grade b+

“PINCH” Premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The film is Currently Seeking US Distribution.

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