Review : Zwigato fails to deliver tasty ‘meal’!
During the pandemic there was chaos in the employment sector. Huge number of people from the private sector lost their jobs. The lower middle class society and the labour class was the worst affected. Many people who had migrated to cities and towns for work went back to their native places. Many stuck to their guns and continued living in towns or cities they were working. Moreover the App related jobs are in demand but these faceless companies work like robots and make huge profits by exploiting the needy workers. India has a huge population but the number of job opportunities are meagre. And this situation is cashed in by these cash rich App companies. The hardships people faced due to loss of a job and the atrocities meted out to the workers by App companies is depicted in ‘Zwigato’ by director and co-writer Nandita Das.
Manas Mahto (Kapil Sharma) loses his job as a floor manage at a factory in Bhubaneswar, Odisha during the Covid-19 induced pandemic. He has a family, a wife Pratima (Shahana Goswami), an ailing mother and two kids, to support. Without flinching and understanding the responsibility of supporting family he takes a job of a food delivery boy at Zwigato. This App based company, like any other similar companies existing in today’s times, takes advantage of people’s vulnerability. The people working for them are caught in the web of ratings, delivery timings, penalties and grounding. Because this company is faceless one cannot protest. Manav has no option but keep on working. His wife realises her husband’s plight and starts working at a Mall as a cleaning staff which creates rift between them. The trials and tribulations connected with Manav and Pratima’s lives are narrated with authenticity and compassion.
Director Nandita Das has tried to stack too many things in the film. A lot of sequences depicting economy, social system, politics, though interrelated, looks forced. The film moves at a singular pace throughout. It looks like a collection of incidents sewed up together thus taking the film off track. The App companies’ brutal activities are well etched out. Also the plight of Mahto family comes across sincerely. The end looks abrupt but the message film imparts reaches viewers. Slow pace of the movie is detrimental in catching audiences’ attention. There are touches of Nandita Das stamp on sequences but they aren’t plenty. Kapil Sharma and Sahana Goswami are the saving grace of the film. Both have delivered master performances. Shahana is known for portraying these kind of role and this looked like her ‘home-pitch’. Kapil Sharma will surprise everyone with his sedate and relatable performance. He has a image of a comedic actor but not once he is out of the character and his male chauvinist husband, loving, caring and responsible son, loving but strict father, win hearts. He will be proud of himself.
‘Zwigato’, though offers food for thought, fails to deliver tasty ‘meal’.
**
Keerti Kadam.