Applause Entertainment’s Zindaginama, an AntiMatter production, conceptualized by MPower is a six-tier anthology of stories on mental ailments on SonyLIV. It is a huge leap forward for cinema on the invisible disease. Mental issues are never taken seriously in our country.
“Tu pagal hai kya?” is a flippant mode of banter. This anthology gently points us towards the core issue and yet keeps us engrossed without preaching or, God forbid, screeching. The tone of almost all the six stories, directed by Sahaan Hattangadi, Mitakshara Kumar, Danny Mamik, Rakhee Sandilya, Aditya Sarpotdar and Sukriti Tyagi, is gentle, prodding, sometimes humorous, at times deeply disturbing.
My pick of the lot are Caged where two men, played by Sumeet Vyas and that brilliant young actor from Tumbbad, Mohammad Samad, help one another in discovering and acknowledging their sexual identity. It is a tough story to tell and hats off to Samad for playing a crossdresser with such sensitivity.
Shreyas Talpade is exemplary as a schizophrenic in the first story. Anjali Joshi is even better as his wife trying to cope with chronic domestic crisis with patience, tenderness and compassion.
The performances go a long way in furnishing the stories with a keen sense of sensibleness maturity and fidelity. Shweta Prasad Tiwari and Priya Bapat playing two women who cope with demands on their body they do not want , come across with non-negotiable conviction in a highly-strung story. I though the complicated plotting was unsuited here to the short-story format. But the two actresses beat the heat of the overwrought plot with their understated performances.
Prajakta Kohli is splendidly winsome as a woman suffering from an eating disorder.The format featuring Kohli and Yashaswini Dayama as sisters, one slim the other overweight, was a little too filmy for this authentic anthology; and Lilette Dubey was wasted as the two sisters’ mother trying to feed cake to the food challenged daughter.
The talented Tanmay Dhanania anchors ‘Purple Duniya’ one of the weaker stories, about gaming addiction . The dialogues are a bit dodgy here, and Shruti Seth looks as much like our neighbourhood therapist as Ananya Pandey would if she played a chawl-wali.
The weakest story of the sextet is ‘Puppet Show’ in which Shivani Raghuvanshi tries to get over her OCD disorder with the help of her Prince Charming on a bicycle. The writing here is extremely noisy and tactless.
The gentle touch is otherwise amply applied to most of the content here. It’s not only about driving home a message on mental health. It is also about telling stories that are largely interesting , sometimes moving and always driven by a sense of positivity .
