Credit: Special Arrangement
Nandita Das’s Zwigato is relevant, intriguing, but incredibly dull.
Set in Bhubaneshwar, the movie follows the life of Manas Singh (Kapil Sharma), a former factory worker who faces unemployment and financial struggles. He takes up a job as a food delivery agent for a gig economy service called 'Zwigato'. As he navigates his new job, we watch him grapple with the pressures of performance metrics and the precarious nature of gig work.
Of course, Zwigato has nothing to do with Zomato or Swiggy! A pioneer in the industry, it has its employees on a tight leash. It blares out an annoyingly shrill alarm when an order is placed and suspends delivery partners for declining more than three orders. It has no SOP set in place to deal with false accusations against delivery partners. Sounds about right!
Manas’s wife Pratima (Shahana Goswami) is another interesting character. In a bid to help her husband, she takes up odd jobs — facing challenges with equal amounts of fear and excitement. Both Shahana and Kapil do a good job in portraying their characters.
Throughout the film, themes of resilience, societal expectations, and the search for dignity in work emerge, ultimately showcasing the quest for a better life in modern India. While the themes are interesting and have the potential to tug at the strings of your heart, the movie fails to communicate the emotions due to poor screenplay and direction.
An hour into the movie, the plot gets repetitive. It almost feels like you’re watching a ‘Day in the life’ vlog, with no real endgame in sight.
Nandita’s vision would have benefited from a little more structure.