Review – Unpaused – A tale of varied emotions during lockdown

Plot

This film is the amalgamation of five short films and all the stories are related to the lockdown situation. Each of the short has basic human emotions and how acts in these testing times. These shorts are directed by Raj & DK (Glitch), Nikkhil Advani (The Apartment), Tannishtha Chatterjee (Rat-A-Tat), Avinash Arun Dhaware (Vishanu), and Nithya Mehra (Chand Mubarak).

Performances

In the first short, Gulshan Devaiah and Sayamai Kher play the leads and they do a decent job. But the best was Sayami Kher who plays the mute girl. In the last story, both Ratna Pathak Shah and Shardul Bhardwaj play key roles and both these actors do a solid job and arrest you emotionally with their performances. In the third story, Abhishek Banerjee and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan as a couple from Rajasthan evicted from their home for not paying rent do an amazing job with their realistic performances. Richa Chadha is neat in her episode but the best performances come from Lillette Dubey and her story of how she becomes close friends with a Maharashtrian girl.

Analysis

The first story is Glitch and is about a scared guy who is just getting news about COVID. This short directed by Raj and DK is silly and does not have anything interesting to showcase. The narration and screenplay are silly. But from the second short where a Bihari migrant is pushed out of his house, he goes and hides in a rich house in a newly constructed building. This short is nicely written and enacted and has engaging emotions. Ratna Pathak Shah’s short and how the COVID leaves her alone and how he finds solace in the auto driver’s company is shown beautifully.

Then, there is Rich Chadha’s short where she is trying to kill herself but is stopped by her nieghbour. This has also been shown well. Except for the first short, the rest of the shorts are good but they are not the ones that will keep you hooked as they are just about okay. They have good values and neat dialogues. In a nutshell, Unpaused is the anthology of five shorts and has just about passable moments and nothing great to rave about.