Unpaused Movie Review - Lockdown Diaries

Only one out of the five stories in this anthology manages to pull at your heartstrings.

Unpaused, the anthology streaming on Amazon Prime Video, contains a set of fictional stories about the real world, real problems, and real people. Set against the backdrop of Covid-19, Unpaused borrows its name from the uplifting human spirit that refuses to halt even in the midst of a global pandemic. Each of the five shorts is directed by different directors: Nikkhil Advani (The Apartment), Avinash Arun (Vishaanu), Tannishtha Chatterjee (Rat-A-Tat), Raj & DK (Glitch), and Nitya Mehra (Chand Mubarak). The five worlds don't collide with each other, though a yoga position makes its way from one short to another.

Unpaused opens with Glitch following Ahan (Gulshan Devaiah) on a virtual date with Alizah (Saiyami Kher). This one is not so optimistic about the virus as its futuristic world fights Covid-30. Thank god there is an AI voice assistant to talk to. Anyway, Ahan is a hypochondriac, and Alizah is a warrior. He shivers even from the very mention of the virus while she actively dedicates her time to find the cure. Since she is around the virus most of the time, people fear getting close to her. That is why Ahan leaves their first VR date as soon as he comes to know her profession. It's a good attempt to show our relationship with the healthcare workers. We cheer for them, acknowledge their sacrifice, and at the same time, maintain the maximum distance from them. Hence, in a quarantined world, their loneliness multiplies. Raj & DK fill the frame with empty spaces to accentuate remoteness.

The second in line is The Apartment starring Richa Chadha playing Devika, the owner of a news magazine. Her husband (Sumeet Vyas) is guilty of #MeToo, resulting in their separation. In an argument, he blames Devika for not stopping him. These words put her in a state of great mental disturbance inducing thoughts of suicide. Whenever she tries hanging from the fan, the one floor down resident (Ishwak Singh) interrupts, requesting her to move her leaky flower pot. Devika is trapped not just physically (in her room) or psychologically (grasping her husband's behavior); she is visually boxed using the aspect ratio.

Technically, both Glitch and The Apartment are handled skillfully. Also, both of them falter by sometimes being too on the nose. In Glitch, we are constantly reminded of the two different positions inhabited by the couple and how opposites tend to attract ("Surely, it was a glitch in the system that made us meet. For people like us there's no such thing as "Happily ever after!"). It has already been established how scared Ahan is of contacting others, yet we get this line, "I'm a coward/Green grass (he means outside world) also gives me panic attacks." Then there is this "You're a Hypo! And, I am a Warrior!" line in case you forgot within 16 minutes or so. Similarly, The Apartment loses momentum after entering the whole "you can still fight it out/just be brave" monologue. And then it ends with stares signifying live-for-a-purpose kind of thing which lands more with a cringe than a warming sensation. All this takes away the desired effect intended from the change-in-aspect-ratio style.

Two down, three to go. Vishaanu is about the migrant workers (Abhishek Banerjee, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan) who cannot get a ride back home due to the lockdown. Since traveling is on hold, they find shelter in a flat having an empty sumptuous room. With Vishaanu, Arun shows the horrors of migrants and how the pandemic affected them financially, leaving them stranded. Vishaanu is a typical case of good intention but not so good film. Our sympathy for the harsh plight of the workers (and the characters) comes from the news we consumed online and not from the film itself. There is a nice bit where Geetika's character tries imitating a model in a magazine by preparing the bathtub with flowers. For a moment, she gets to live the life of her desire. Otherwise, you get random scenes like the one where some people show up to offer food, which functions as a checklist instead of being a cohesive part of the story.

Mehra's Chand Mubarak, too, is not so successful in capturing the spirit of the human bond. Roaming the streets of Mumbai, we have an auto driver Rafiq (Shardul Bharadwaj), and a middle-aged single woman Uma (Ratna Pathak Shah). Mehra strains to attract the viewer using background music and maintaining convivial composition. Remember that scene from Mehra's Baar Baar Dekho where Jai smiles and picks up his baby as the music soars in the background while the camera gently slows the time and the cuts? There are many such scenes here. The problem being they are forced down our throats. This "deception" works when Uma says, "Ek dum smooth waali sadak hai kya?" and we see them together on the road.

This leaves us with Chatterjee's Rat-A-Tat, my favorite short among the five. Two women, Archana (Lillete Dubey) and Priyanka (Rinku Rajguru, the girl from Sairat), strike an unlikely friendship after a rat terrorizes Priyanka's house. Archana is referred to be as the cranky lady. She impolitely rejects Priyanka's help to get essentials from the market. She also doesn't immediately melt after watching Priyanka sleep on the stairs. Gradually, we get to see Archana's softer and Priyanka's unhappy side. Chatterjee maintains a steady, natural flow bringing old incidents to light when required. While cleaning the house, Priyanka finds Archana's photo together with her husband. She does not immediately ask about the man in the picture. Instead, Chatterjee uses the husband's birthday to release the question. These little things make Rat-A-Tat more organic compared to other stories. It opens with a woman complaining, shouting at the top of her voice, and ends with a sweet, melancholic voice. It is not a character arc but an evocation of a buried trait. In this gloomy timeline, we all could benefit from resuscitating our cheery disposition.

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