After a car kills their mother on a foggy winter night, an older rat leads his younger brother to safety.
Two Rats is a 2D hand-drawn animated short film, roughly 5 minutes long, set over a single foggy winter night on the streets of a city that is usually calm after dark.
Outside a housing society, a mother rat is crushed beneath the reversing wheels of a car. Her two sons are left behind on the cold concrete: an older rat who understands that they can't stay, and a younger one who doesn't understand what has happened and clings to his dead mother.
The older brother tries to pull him away. He calls, pushes and pleads. The younger one resists, weeps and watches his brother do something he can't make sense of, something that finally reaches him. He gets up. He follows.
They find shelter in a small hollow near a tree in a park. The younger rat closes his eyes. The older one stays awake beside him, watching the dark. Before dawn, he returns to the street where their mother lay. There is almost nothing left. A cat disappears around the corner. He runs back, presses close against his brother, and finally closes his eyes too.
The film has no dialogue. We wanted the animals to feel like animals going through something they have no words for. To understand their movement and behaviour, we reached out to people who keep pet rats. They shared videos and recordings and helped us understand how rats move, react and comfort each other. We read, watched and observed wherever we could.
The film takes place on one cold, foggy night. Yellow streetlights, concrete, a lot of dark.
A tarpaulin shelter on a footpath. A bonfire near the society gate where a security guard keeps himself warm. A woman visible through a window, finishing her kitchen work before the light goes off.
Nobody notices the rats, and the film doesn't point any of this out. Its just what a night like that looks like.
Key animation — first four shots
The film began with something that actually happened.
Rats used to get into my home. I caught a few in a cage and released them in a nearby park, the same park that appears in the film. I watched them through the whole process. They were afraid and trembling. When I opened the cage, they simply ran.
I couldn't stop thinking about it. Where do they go after this? Did they have someone waiting for them? Could they have a family?
That thought kept growing until it became this story.
I kept it short because the budget is small. But I also didn't want to explain anything. I want you to watch Two Rats and feel what you feel.
My main purpose in trying to make films is to make people empathise with each other, and not just with each other but with every living thing and the nature.
Two Rats stayed with me because of the frightened rats I saw in that cage. I kept wondering what it would mean for them to feel loss the way we feel it.
I believe a film doesn't necessarily need to explain what it wants to say. As an audience, we already have the capacity within us, in our subconscious, to look at a pattern and feel empathy for it. We only need a context, and the story is there to give us that.
The film is five minutes long because of our budget. We will do our best to make it feel complete to the audience.
— Sumit Madan, Writer / Director
Two Rats is currently in development, and 15% of the film is complete. So far that is mostly key animation, and illustration is in progress for the first shot.
The film started in October 2025, and because of budget constraints it is moving at a very slow pace. Your support will help us speed things up, so the film can be completed, including post-production, within six months.
Sumit Madan is an independent filmmaker based in Chandigarh and the founder of Two Rats Films. He has worked as an assistant director on the Indo-French feature Ladybug Hibernates in Winter and made workshop shorts at FTII.
Mitali is a self-taught animator and visual storyteller with over 15 years in comics, illustration and animation, from India's stand-up comedy scene to 2D games and 3D animation. Her recent 2D short, The Quest, was selected for the Schlingel Film Festival in Germany, the Children's International Film Festival of Wales (nominated for Best Educational Film), the Busan International Kids and Youth Film Festival, and the Ahmedabad International Children's Film Festival.
Alpna is a data analyst and has no background in filmmaking. She will manage the funds for Two Rats, keeping track of every rupee, and handlling payments to the crew, so Sumit can focus on the creative work.
This is my first short film. Its five minutes long, its very personal to me, and I'm making it independently. A film like this is unlikely to earn its money back, and we've already put in our own savings and a lot of time.
We'll keep going either way. But with help from friends, family and anyone who connects with the story, we can finish the film properly and sooner.
The crowdfunding also helps us beyond the production itself. If people chose to support the film because they believe in it, it gives us something real to show when we approach distributors, sales agent and other partners later. It tells them there are people who have already connected with the film and want to see it made.
So if you like what we are trying make and would like to see the film completed, you support would mean a lot.
We are raising funds to complete the remaining animation, cleanup and post-production of Two Rats. Every contribution goes toward getting the film from its current state to a finished short.
We are trying to fund the film with your support. If the goal is not met, the film will still continue, through the efforts of the director and the lead animator. The funds will be managed by Alpna, who will work as executive producer and release payments to the animators.
UPI ID tworatsfilms@ybl
Account name: Alpna
If you are a producer, production house or collaborator interested in helping us take Two Rats to completion, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in the internals of the filmmaking, we are open to bringing on an associate producer if your contribution takes us to 20% of the budget.
tworatsfilms@gmail.com