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Bhandarkar Entertainment, P.J. Motion Pictures and Pen Studios’ India Lockdown (A) is about the Coronavirus lockdown and the sufferings of the Indians during that time.
Writers Amit Joshi, Aradhana Sah and Madhur Bhandarkar have written a story which borrows liberally from what actually transpired during the dark days of the lockdown. They convey the drama through four protagonists — Madhav Prakash (Prateik Babbar) who is a poor worker living with wife Phoolmati (Sai Tamhankar) and two little kids; Mehru (Shweta Basu Prasad) who works in the flesh trade and lives in a red-light area with her co-workers; Nageshwar Rao (Prakash Belawadi) whose Hyderabad trip to visit his pregnant daughter, Swati (Hrishitaa Bhatt in a special appearance), is aborted due to travel restrictions imposed during the lockdown; and Dev (Satwik Bhatia) whose dream of getting physical with girlfriend Palak (Zarine Shihab) remains just that. Dev’s neighbhour, Moon Alves (Ahana Kumra), is older than him but she finds him desirable. Since the story is conveyed mainly through the aforementioned characters but is about incidents one has heard in the last two-and-a-half years, there is not much novelty. Yes, the part about the girls in the flesh trade is not too well-known and hence affords some novelty. But besides that, the track of labourers (Madhav and others) setting out on foot with their families from Bombay to their home towns, or of separated lovers (Dev and Palak), or of a desperate father (Nageshwar Rao) trying to reach his daughter (Swati) in another city are all too well-known. Since the lockdown is still very fresh in people’s minds, it is likely that many among the public may not want to relive those horrific days. Otherwise, the screenplay, penned by the trio, is quite well-written. There are a couple of emotional scenes but the drama could’ve done with far more of them. Comedy is almost completely lacking. Mehru’s track talks about sex liberally, and will be liked by the masses. The trio’s dialogues are quite hard-hitting.
Prateik Babbar does a fair job as Madhav Prakash. Sai Tamhankar is very natural in the role of his wife, Phoolmati. Shweta Basu Prasad looks fetching and acts with aplomb as Mehru. She delivers an absolutely uninhibited performance. Prakash Belawadi is first-rate in the role of Nageshwar Rao. The scene in which he leaves his dog with the neighbours, before leaving for Hyderabad in his car, is splendid and underlines his genius as an actor. Ahana Kumra is lovely and lively in the role of Moon Alves. Satwik Bhatia is endearing as Dev. Zarine Shihab (as Palak) is free and natural to the core. Sanand Verma leaves a fine mark as pimp Tipu. Chahat Tewani stands her own in a brief role as Titli. Gopal Singh has his moments as Charandas. Hrishitaa Bhatt (in a special appearance as Swati), Pankaj Jha (as Guddu), Ayesha S. Aeman (as Kamli), Antim Totla Maheshwari (as Kapasi), Vicky Vishwas (as Gabru), Bharat Bhatia (as Rao’s neighbour, Khosla), Lalit Parashar (as Rao’s neighbour, Manoj Shah), Chitra Moolani (as Hetal Shah), Kailash Bhatt (as Pintu), Chanchlesh Singh (as Kisan), Chitropama Banerji (as Palak’s mother), Manu Malik (as Palak’s father) and Aparna Upadhyay (as Mehru’s mother) lend fine support. Baby Tahura Mansuri and baby Jenika Purohit are okay as Madhav’s elder and younger daughter respectively.
Madhur Bhandarkar’s direction is quite sensitive. Rohit Kulkarni’s music is okay. Lyrics (Imliadrakee, Sanjeev Kumar Pandey and Shridhar Rajgopalan) are quite meaningful. Choreography (Imran Malgunkar and Bhakti Naik) is functional. Rohit Kulkarni’s background music ought to have been more effective. Camerawork (Keiko Nakahara and Palash Das) is nice. Harish Shetty’s action scenes are okay. Shamim Kopkar’s production designing is alright. Devendra Murdeshwar’s editing is fairly sharp.
On the whole, India Lockdown is a fairly nice account of the lockdown but the takers for this kind of a film with a documentary-like feel, would be limited because not many may want to relive those horrific days. It is good that the film has premiered digitally as its sustenance in cinemas would be difficult.
Released on 2-12-’22 on Zee5.
