India Lockdown

One time watch, focuses more on the adult content, ending seems to be incomplete, there may be a 2nd part I'm expecting, never revealed about it.

Be aware that it is an A certificate movie before watching it with family.

Should've been released in 2021, the movie don't have a strong/famous actors support, feels like you are watching a good simple YouTube short film,

The music and background score is good, songs are not effective.

All you have is hilarious adult comedy, where everyone really enjoys.

The best part in the movie is it shows the life of a Pearson from rich to people who walked all the way from Mumbai to Bihar.

Verdict: one time watch, may not be for all the category people.

India Lockdown (2022) : Movie Review -

Madhur Bhandarkar's India Lockdown is no different from other lockdown-based webseries and OTT original films we have seen in the last couple of years, but anyway, what a big bore it is. Madhur seems to have lost his Midas a decade ago, or maybe even before that, after he made "Fashion" (2008), his last well-made film, in my opinion. Post Jail (2009), he just couldn't deliver on his level and subsequently went lower with each passing film. This year, he had a terrible film like "Babli Bouncer," and India Lockdown is just a nice follow-up to that.

India Lockdown doesn't have a specific script like a feature film-I mean, the proper hero, heroine, love, drama, and action kind of stuff. It'sa story we all know because we all witnessed it in 2020. The film starts off in the prelude period of Lockdown 1.0. The people have just heard about the Corona virus, but they are not ready for the catastrophe, pandemic, lockdown, or whatever you want to call it. The film follows the lives of many people, divided into four parallel stories: a father-daughter duo stuck in different cities; a sex worker and her troubles; a migrant worker with bare resources; and a female pilot who begins a platonic affair with her teenage neighbour. While doing so, the writer leaves a lot of loopholes for you to dig into and raise a question: did people really behave like that?

The writing is the main fault. Amit Joshi and Aradhana Sah needed no research material to cook up a nice script, but they couldn't even present the simple life issues of common people. A commercial pilot is supposed to be intelligent, but here we have the girl cracking lame jokes with senseless humour. Her teenage neighbour and his girlfriend have nothing to do with their lives but talk about losing their virginity (while the people nearby are losing their lives). The sex worker is honestly brutal about her job and money, but suddenly becomes a female messiah (don't ask how?). The migrant worker and his wife would bore you to death with their unadjusted behaviour and hunger issues, which would appeal to nobody. How are there so many flaws in a story that is based on true events and characters from recent times?

Talking about performances, the boat seems to be floating better. Shweta Basu Prasad goes overboard in a few scenes, but the rest of the time, she stands out as the best performer in this big casting unit. Prakash Belawadi finished second after her, while Sai Tamhankar came in third place despite having less screentime. Aahana Kumra looks hot and sexy, but I wish I could have said something good like this for her performance. Satvik Bhatia, Zarin Shihab, Sanand Varma, Ayeesha Aimen, and Chahat Tewani are somewhat noticeable, while Hrishita Bhatt's friendly appearance only flashes on a laptop or mobile screen.

Technically, India Lockdown is a big letdown. The screen colour suddenly changes without any reason, so it's hard to believe that we were watching a film set in the same time period. The sepia effect to Prateik Babbar and Sai Tamhankar's story, the lightly blue screen for Aahana Kumra, and the excessively dark tone to Shweta's Wadi are all unexplained. The music and background score do nothing except drag the pace further. Madhur Bhandarkar has left the film dead, just like how Lockdown left many of us uncabled. There was so much to explore from the issues and struggles of common people during the lockdown period, especially the first two months (March, April, and May in 2020), but Bhandarkar picked filmy drama elements, only to cook his so-called realistic feature film full of abuses and uncomfortable moments that you can't see with your family. Moreover, the boring screenplay and flawed storytelling take away novelty factors, leaving you with a two-hour semi-headache. Overall, a lockdown story that should be locked and chained (just like the poster) in a quarantine room as it could be harmful to sensible movie watchers.

RATING - 4/10*

Following Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, life wasn't same after government imposed lockdown nationwide in India in the beginning of 2020. The lockdown had a severe effect on the livelihoods of migrant workers and life came to almost a stand still when people were confined to their homes. The effect was adverse to completely cover in a movie.

The film focuses on a smaller social strata that were effected by the lockdown, including prostitutes, a workaholic pilot, youngsters trying to lose their virginity, an elderly man awaiting to visit his pregnant daughter, and a migrant worker. The film delves much into the world of prostitutes during lockdown, and in a way it seems Bhandarkar attempts to create more of a voyeuristic movie to lure the viewers than actually depict the plight of lockdown. However, the film achieves in depicting the hardship of migrant workers left in destitute to walk days to their villages, which appears much emotional in the screen. Overall, the film has its moments but is unable to leave the voyeuristic aspect of Bhandarkar movies, making it unsuitable to be watched with your family.

Rating: 2 stars out of 4.

The screenplay is decent. There are some entertaining scenes while some are boring and unnecessary. The movie is based on doctors life. Drama movie. The end of the movie is somewhat emotional. The movie is a complete adult movie. The movie has some dialogues which are meant for adults. Double meaning dialogues are more in this movie. Moreover, there is no bad scene in the movie. The movie has some comedy scenes. The performance of all the actors in the movie is good. Specially Prateik performance is very good. There is no music in the movie. I didn't like any of the songs. No background score. Overall one time watchable movie. The movie will be boring after the second viewing. Bad movie editing. A minimum of 10 to 15 minutes of scenes could have been cut. This movie would have been better if the unnecessary scenes were cut.

India Lockdown tries to depict how COVID and the lockdowns that followed affected the lives of people belonging to the various sections of Indian society. Now, this is not the first film made with the backdrop of coronavirus, and in all probability it won't be the last as well, but the thing that matters is that regardless of how important an event you select as the backdrop of your movie, it needs to be told in the form of a story, otherwise it would feel like a documentary, something that holds true for this film as well. Some things are happening in the film, but it's not quite clear as to what is the intention of the director, what exactly does he want to say through this movie. It looks like the director and his research team picked up some examples from real life and put them into this movie, but forgot to weave them into a properly structured story.

Among the four stories being told simultaneously, the story that moves you the most is the one with Prateik Babbar and Sai Tamhankar. One of the most heartbreaking consequences of the lockdown was the mass exodus of migrant workers, and we get a first-hand experience of that traumatic phase through Madhav and his wife, as they wander around helplessly on the streets. It was as it is depressing to revisit those visuals once again, but the believability with which those two actors have portrayed their roles made it even more painful to watch. Prateik Babbar and Sai Tamhankar are extremely underrated actors and both of them have given a beautiful performance in this segment of the movie.

The Mehrunissa chapter with Shweta Basu Prasad also felt like a retelling of some real life instances that may have happened during the lockdown, there was no real story there. I kept wondering as to where are we headed with this, what is the point of what we are watching, but I got nothing. It feels as if the director just wanted to show how sex workers were operating during coronavirus, that's all. The problem however with this kind of filmmaking is that your movie starts to look like a documentary. Shweta Basu Prasad is a very capable actress, but in most of the scenes of this movie, she was extremely loud and over the top. Perhaps she was trying to impersonate some real life sex worker, but she should have kept it a few notches lower. It was only towards the end that she gave a glimpse of the brilliance that she possesses as an actress.

Prakash Belawadi was extremely grounded in his portrayal of Nageshwar, but his segment too felt like a soulless piece of screenplay. Through Nageshwar's story, the director was telling us something that we are already aware of. If we wanted to see things happening around us, we would watch the news or read it; we don't watch a movie for that. Events taking place around us are supposed to be used as the setting, something that helps the director in laying down the basic groundwork of his main story; turning that particular news story into your screenplay is just lazy work. The main focus has to be there on the main characters and their journey, otherwise there is no real point of making a film.

The segment with Dev, Palak and Moon Alvez was not only dull and predictable but also the weakest in terms of acting performances. While the young actors just didn't know how to act, Aahana Kumra on the other hand was extremely loud in every single scene.

No one likes to watch a boring and poorly written film, but unfortunately that is precisely what 'India Lockdown' is.