The lockdown was a big moment for India as a country. It was considered a crucial step in our fight against the coronavirus. We're slowly unwrapping after starting something we didn't know how long we were going to be in. For better or for worse, the lockdown left everyone with memories.
Netflix released its movie on the lockdown today on YouTube as a premiere. This would be the first Netflix film people get to watch without a Netflix subscription, also entirely homemade not to mention. Home Stories brings 4 perspectives on the lockdown, with 4 different tales, let the reliability begin.
Home Stories: 4 lockdown experiences all with a pinch of hope
Netflix announced the premiere of Home Stories only a day ago, and this was going to be a unique outing. With the first film purely on the lockdown, it becomes an interesting watch. Released as a premiere on YouTube, this public viewing format allows one not only to enjoy the content but with the company of the many watching along with you.
The 4 different stories within the movie, is a format Netflix has tried before. This time the theme and the central peg is the lockdown. Home Stories starts with Out With It directed by Sahirr Sethhi starring Arjun Mathur as Angad, is the tale of a germaphobe who is dealing with the anxiety of the Coronavirus scare in the country.
Even if we've not exactly felt fear as gripping as this man does about stepping out of his home, to some extent the fear has been real especially coupled with the need to sanitize. Arjun Mathur plays him with routine, with his quirks, but not as someone who isn't trying. He too tries, waking up every morning telling himself he'll go out. We've all had moments of questioning, this is just two or three notches higher, that's all.
The second film Will You Be My Quarantine, a comedy directed by Anubhuti Kashyap and played by Saba Azad and Imaad Shah is an accidental, forced isolation situation. A 'one-stand that turns into a 3-week standoff' between its characters Vaishnavi and Rehaan as the film explains. The awkwardness of having to share everything, in a situation you're unprepared for with a complete stranger, seems a little too natural a transition here. However, it still works in making you root for their newfound coordination. The banter between the two definitely, makes you want to know more about them.
Delivering Smiles featuring Tanmay Dhanania, directed by Tanvi Gandhi is perhaps the most insightful and one that really looks deep into the fissures created by the lockdown. The perspective of a delivery man, who tries to stay cheerful even as he meets different customers, is a rendition of a story no one would have ever chosen to tell even much after the lockdown, in the post-COVID era. The cheerfulness of the delivery man is refreshing, it makes you wish all delivery men are a little more like Prakash, the movie suggests, perhaps they are and we've never bothered enough to think so.
The final film in the series, a grand finale with the Bollywood staple of a big fat Indian wedding is Web Ne Bana Di Jodi directed by Ashwin Lakshmi Naryan features Apoorva Mehta and Veer Rajwant Singh as the lead Jia and Ashu. The premise of a couple trying to have an online wedding amidst the lockdown is interesting no doubt. However, the turmoil depicted here is more emotional than functional. While one wonders if it can be that smooth sailing, perhaps if we abandon our cynicism, fairytale weddings online will be a cakewalk.
These Home Stories are not meant to shed doom or gloom, they're meant to give all a bit of hope. Of course, where there's emotion, it can always go deeper. Surely, though the movie is bound to take you back to your own lockdown, in a moment of reflection before you leave the metaphoric nest.
