Cast: Richa Chadha, Ratna Pathak Shah, Saiyami Kher, Gulshan Devaiah, Sumeet Vyas, Abhishek Banerjee, Lillete Dubey, Rinku Rajguru, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, Ishwak Singh
Director: Nikkhil Advani, Avinash Arun, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Krishna D.K, Nitya Mehra, Raj Nidimoru
BLUF
Unpaused is the story of the last 9 months of life-changing events that have challenged each one of us, be it the exacerbation of our isolation, the expression of our anguish and enduring optimism.
Filmed as an anthology of individual stories, the movie is a showcase of marvelous performances, and a relevant observation on the impact of the pandemic and the devastations it caused not only in personal lives but the way it has evoked our humanity to its best and its worst.
THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES
The dynamics of the class divide, the rift between the haves and the have-nots, the humanity and the inhumanity of the crisis The 113-minute Unpaused, an Amazon Prime original, the five stories though varied in style all tell human stories of people in a pandemic.
In Glitch, directed by Raj & DK, alludes to the future of our changed lives if varied strains of the virus are discovered and the pandemic lifestyle become an Orwellian reality. A hypochondriac meets a vaccination warrior and how their lives collide in the journey from a VR meeting to a meeting in person.
In Tannishtha Chatterjee’s Rat-a-Tat, a woman in her 60’s calls the cops to complain about the noise made by a neighbor but the cops refuse to take cognizance. She finds a friend in a young girl in her neighborhood when the girl gets locked out of her home.
The collective clanging of thalis (Steel Plates) in Nikkhil Advani’s The Apartment where a woman, in isolation and in depression is driven to the edge by her disloyal husband and in her attempts to end her life is saved by a neighbor who sees her trying to hang herself from the fan ceiling.
Avinash Arun Dhaware’s Vishaanu, showcasing Abhishek Banerjee and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan as a couple from Rajasthan dislodged from their home for not paying rent. They sneak into a staged model apartment, at a construction site, make viral TikTok videos as pandemic rendered them jobless.
Unpaused ends with Chand Mubarak, where two individuals with divergent perspectives on the lockdown. an old spinster with no family and a man separated from his family begin to understand a new unfamiliar world while sharing a love for the Sufi spiritualist Amir Khusro (Chaap tilak sab chheeni mose naina milaike )
IN THE ZONE
The multiplicity of approaches, the focus on humanity and the variation in story telling only makes Unpaused that much more interesting to watch as these are five distinctive movies on a shared theme. The direction, the narration, the capturing of the stories of humanity while in the middle of a deadly pandemic makes superlative cinema even when we are fairly sure they did not have all the men and the resources to technically put the movie together.
FWAR
The stories are poignant, imaginative, thought-provoking, amusing, and intelligent while driving home a huge message about humanity in distress. The movie is embellished with superb performances from all the actors. Each director has a style and a narrative which, even though differently executed, compose a combined narrative of human grief, and will resonate with the audience.
WHAT WE LOVED
All of the stories
WHAT WE MISSED
Nada.
