Unpaused Trailer: Here’s Why This Pandemic Anthology From Amazon Ought To Be On Your Watch List!

Unpaused Trailer: Here’s Why This Pandemic Anthology From Amazon Ought To Be On Your Watch List!

Anthology movies always tend to leave me a little confused, because what if you like only one or two of the stories? Do you like the film then or not? Can you half like a film? Okay, I might just hit pause on my introspective monologue and give Amazon Original film Unpaused a chance. It is an anthology of five short films set during the coronavirus pandemic, directed by five acclaimed filmmakers, including Raj & DK (The Family Man), Nikkhil Advani (D-Day), Tannishtha. Chatterjee, Avinash Arun (Paatal Lok) and Nitya Mehra (Made In Heaven). The cast is, if possible, even more impressive and exciting, and includes Gulshan Devaiah, Saiyami Kher, Richa Chadha, Sumeet Vyas, Ishwak Singh, Rinku Rajguru, Lillete Dubey, Ratna Pathak Shah, Shardul Bharadwaj, Abhishek Banerjee and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan.

The Unpaused trailer dropped today, amidst a time where the lockdown is almost lifted, the world is returning to its pace, and the vaccine is (hopefully) within our reach. So it begs the question, what new does Unpaused has to offer? Well, we know exactly what. For starters, take a look at a short summary of what each of the short films’ stories are going to be. And while you do that, have a looksie at the cast too.

 

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1. Glitch directed by Raj & DK (The Family Man), starring Gulshan Devaiah and Saiyami Kher

In these times when people fear human contact, a hypochondriac man meets a delightfully strange girl on a blind date, which turns out to be far more meaningful than he anticipated.

2. Apartment directed by Nikkhil Advani (D-Day), starring Richa Chadha, Sumeet Vyas and Ishwak Singh

When the owner of a successful online news magazine learns of her husband’s sexual indiscretions, she is left shocked and unable to come to terms with it. Hopeless, she spirals into a dark maze of self-blame and attempts to end her own life. Enter, a ray of hope in the guise of a pesky intruder. Except his intrusions are actually interventions. Through their interactions, she finds the inner strength to face her unpleasant situation and then move on.

3. Rat – A – Tat directed by Tannishtha, featuring Rinku Rajguru (Sairat), Lillete Dubey

Two women. Four decades apart— one who chose to be alone and the other who is alone because of circumstances, confront loneliness and form an unlikely friendship during lockdown which brings them hope and a new beginning.

4. Vishaanu directed by Avinash Arun (Paatal Lok), starring Abhishek Banerjee and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan (Soni, Thappad)

During the lockdown, a young migrant family after being thrown out of their rented house, for not being able to pay the rent, decides to illegally sneak into a lavish sample flat – that is in the same building in which they were working as construction workers. This time, for them, is a dream lived for a momentary period as well as a curse to cope up with their stark reality.

5. Chaand Mubarak directed by Nitya Mehra (Made in Heaven) starring Ratna Pathak Shah and Shardul Bharadwaj (Bhonsle)

An affluent middle-aged single woman is forced to seek help of a young rickshaw driver to run some errands during Mumbai’s lockdown. The woman is stubborn & class conscious and resents the driver’s orthodox views on women. As these two strangers from opposite sides of the track spend three days together, they slowly start peeling away their defenses and form an unlikely friendship based on newfound respect and understanding, realizing they aren’t so different after all – both lonely in the big city of dreams.

Why should you be putting Unpaused on your watch list?

It’s December, the time for year-end roundups and a look back at what all the year brought us. For any other year, it might have been a long list, but for 2020, everyone’s going to pretty much say, COVID-19. The pandemic and the lockdown was such a gigantic pain in the world’s collective ass. And yet, it did manage to bring us closer in the most unusual and heartwarming of ways. We could sit and crib about it or we could turn our attitude à la something out of a Humans of Bombay story and get inspired. What I sense from these five stories is that they seem to cover a lot of different lives, experiences and emotions that were felt during this time. And they’re going to leave us with some bittersweet reflections about our own pandemic experiences, the loneliness, the insecurities, the touch deprivation, the class struggle and the paranoia. Not all of it is worth remembering but hey, it could be a nice way to bid 2020 good riddance.

I’m particularly excited about that cast, though, amirite? It’s like they picked some of our favourite actors from OTT movies and shows and brought them together in never-seen-before pairings to see what magic happens. I think I am particularly keen on watching Gulshan Devaiah and Saiyami Kher’s chemistry, the charming Ishwak Singh, as well as Abhishek Banerjee and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan’s story, because it reminds me of Parasite and I loved their work in Paatal Lok and Soni, respectively. I am also looking forward to watching Ratna Pathak Shah and Lillete Dubey, who’re always a delight to see on screen!

So, in case you haven’t, you should pause what you’re doing, watch the Unpaused trailer and add the movie to your watchlist!

Unpaused releases on Amazon Prime Video on December 18, 2020.

Also Read: Radhika Apte Plays Noor Inayat Khan In ‘A Call To Spy’, A Film About Female World War II Spies!

Jinal Bhatt

A Barbie girl with Oppenheimer humour. Sharp-tongue feminist and pop culture nerd with opinions on movies, shows, books, patriarchy, your boyfriend, everything.

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