MELBOURNE, 27 November 2022: After Vinod Kapri’s ‘1232 KMS’ documentary in 2021, on India’s Carona lockdown, now we have veteran Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘India Lockdown’ to start streaming on Zee5 Global from 2 December 2022. While Kapri’s documentary was on India’s COVID-19 lockdown with just 4 hours notice and brings the plight of seven migrant workers who walked to their village in Saharsa Bihar from Delhi, India Lockdown is much more.
In Bhandarkar’s ‘India Lockdown’, Shweta Basu Prasad plays the role of Mehrunissa, a sex worker in Kamathipura in Mumbai who is forced to adapt to the changes brought about by the lockdown and experiment with new ways of doing her business online. Aahana Kumra plays Moon Alves, a pilot who is used to soaring high in the sky but is suddenly grounded for months together and who for the first time realizes what it is like to have her wings cut. Prateik Babbar as Madhav and Sai Tamhankar as Phoolmati are migrant workers who lose their bread and butter in the pandemic and are left to starve or to walk back home as trains and local transports are shut. And lastly, Prakash Belawadi is Nageshwar, an aged man who is stuck in a different city than his daughter at a critical time of her life.
It is these people’s stories that have been weaved by Bhandarkar skillfully in his style in a way as things could happen. Many of us experienced the same. Seeing the movie, I realized, humans are the same, and the harsh lockdown created a million stories. Out of these, we have four parallel tales that speak for themselves. The separation of the young lovers looks natural, a senior man longing to reach his pregnant daughter in Hyderabad reflects human bonding, and the struggle of a group of migrant workers including Madhav & Phoolmati marching on a road with 2 kids toward their village in Bihar focuses on the tragic human suffering the lockdown brought to India’s most vulnerable.
The Mumbai brothel crisis focussed on sex worker Mehrrunisa (Shweta Basu Prasad), and the shift to phone sex is revealing. Says Shweta, ” We all experienced the lockdown of uncertainty, including sex workers. When people ask me how did I prepare to play the part of a sex worker, it’s just another role, the story of a human being and as an actor, it’s a privilege to play so many different kinds of roles. I researched a lot, in fact, Madhur sir and the team took me to Kamathipura in Mumbai where I met fee sex workers and picked on their lingo, body language, and mannerisms. I also realized that human emotions are universal experiences. Whether it’s the reader of this article or a commercial sex worker. Everyone’s stories of the lockdown should be told.”
The about one hour and 52 minutes ‘India Lockdown’ starts off with Nelson Mandela’s quote- ” The greatest glory in living, lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”. One has to remember how a crisis (like the Carona pandemic) emerges and then how it is handled. Yes, people will make all efforts (as the film shows) to stand up, and has its own dynamics. When the maid (Phoolmati) is told not to come to work, she says in Hindi, ” Hum bahar nahi jayege – to khayege kya?” (If we do not go outside for work, then what will we eat?). It is these very people who walked towards their villages.
Prateik Babbar says, “We all read about the state of migrant workers due to the lockdown imposed in 2020 but I didn’t expect to represent them 2 years later in a Madhur Bhandarkar film. My role as a migrant worker in India Lockdown gave me an opportunity to come closer to them and feel what they felt – the uncertainties and the struggles unlike ever before – during the 2 most difficult years of their life. I hope that this film strikes a chord with people across the world and that we treat each other with more compassion”.
The movie is powerful and reflects human tragedy, weaknesses, opportunities, love, struggles, and the will to overcome a difficult situation. So, many suffered and died during the pandemic amid the sudden lockdowns and lack of care. Bhandarkar just gives us a piece of it. Madhur Bhandarkar and his team (including the actors) do a good job. Anyone who sees this movie can relate it to themselves, though the story could be different.
I give it 4 stars out of five.
