This pandemic suddenly brought a pause to all of our lives. The ‘lockdown’ of several months taught us that a pause button lies somewhere. Even the world had stopped for some time and this time of apparent loneliness made us understand the difference between loneliness and solitude. The Amazon Prime original film ‘Unpaused’ tells five such stories from the busiest city of our country Mumbai.
The first story ‘Glitch’ directed by Raj & DK tells us a love story of near-future where there are only two kinds of people – who fight the deadly virus and second, who fight for not being contaminated. But no matter how powerful the virus or how worse the situation is, there is always room for love. Gulshan Devaiah and Sayyami Kher are very sharp in depicting their characters. This story can also be called love in the time of corona.
The next story is Nikhil Advani’s ‘The Apartment’ which shows us whether in lockdown or not, people can continue being alone and also being lonely. Richa Chadda and Sumit Vyas have aptly portrayed the characters. It also shows that apart from being alone and in despair, there is also a choice in how we can react and I think this is the moral of the story.
Tannishtha Chatterjee has always owned our heart for her beautiful depiction of women. Similarly, in ‘Rat-a-Tat’, she portrayed the past and future together in the present with sheer mastery. In all these five stories, my heart created a separate place for ‘Vishanoo’ by Avinash Arun Dhaware. Abhishek Banerjee proved his capabilities in this film again. Last but not least, Nitya Mehra’s ‘Chand Mubarak’ is apparently a tale of getting back a lost relative.
All these five stories are different from one another but are weaved together in a thread with one thing: ‘Mumbai Lockdown’.
The tales in ‘Unpaused’ are all about giving a second chance, rejuvenating and making a place for hope and love. These elements may not appear to very expensive but certainly are crucial. In the story of Vishanoo, the migrant worker couple had a chance to live a life they had never imagined but their situation was of a kind where some genie fulfilled their wish albeit partially. Life is not at all a fairy tale yet we expect for magic to happen. May be all our expectations have been partially granted but we can also see the darker part of it.