A lockdown drama that contains a piece of all of us
Idon’t think anyone can forget the evening of March 24, 2020 when a nationwide lockdown was announced for 21 days following the Covid-19 outbreak. Almost three years later, Madhur Bhandarkar’s film India Lockdown takes you back to that dark time, with an earnest attempt to recreate the horrors that everyone faced.
With four parallel stories detailing varied aspects of human dilemmas, the film keeps things real without melodramatic twists. Everyone turning home chefs, young couples getting restless not being able to go out on dates, long queues outside grocery stores, mandatory health checks and home quarantines, reluctance to wear masks — Bhandarkar picks up diverse elements and narrates them in minute detail. At two hours, the film is crisp and doesn’t digress too much.
More than the story and screenplay, the winner here is the casting and the performances. Of all the stories that the film touched based upon, my favourites are those about migrants and sex workers, and how their lives got affected while dealing with bare minimum resources for survival.
The scenes where the migrant couple Madhav and Phoolmati (Prateik Babbar and Sai Tamhankar) with their two little daughters walk miles every day in scorching heat, sometimes without food and water, will leave a lump in your throat. Babbar plays his part so well and his portrayal of the pain his character goes through, moves you, for instance, in the sequence where Babbar goes through a pile of garbage for food. Tamhankar, too, is very strong and convincing.
The story about a sex worker, Mehrunissa, (Shweta Basu Prasad) in Mumbai’s Kamathipura evokes both joy and sorrow. It is such an effortless performance that you wonder what kind of prep she undertook for the role. Her mannerisms and accent never look out of place. A few scenes may make one uncomfortable, but a Bhandarkar film will always bring you closer to the reality in the most hard-hitting way.
Aahana S Kumra, playing Moon Alves, a commercial pilot who is becomes homebound because all flights are suspended during the lockdown, went a little overboard with the look and portrayal of her character, I felt. The last story, about a father, M Nageshwar Rao (Prakash Belawadi) and his pregnant daughter Swathi (Hrishita Bhatt), who get stuck in different cities, is cute in its own way. I enjoyed watching Rao as an extra-cautious senior citizen, his mask always up and his life alone in his house with his dog.
With India Lockdown, I’m glad that Bhandarkar avoids preaching, and instead focusses on capturing relatable human stories. Celebrating getting a negative test report, dressing up at home with nowhere to go, video calls becoming a way of life and the ‘new normal’ making its place in everyone’s lives — the film has a piece of all of us. I hope (and want) that Bhandarkar comes out with a sequel to this film, detailing the horrors of second wave of Covid-19. Until then, watch this and remember how you adjusted to the new normal.