Nandita Das’s Zwigato, the moving tender film about a delivery boy, played by Kapil Sharma, trying to survive during the Covid pandemic, is now streaming on Amazon Prime video.
When I reached out to Nandita Das she could barely contain her joy. “I am in Egypt right now as the jury head of a film festival. The news that Zwigato is streaming on Amazon Prime Video reached me here like manna from heaven. I am so happy its’ s out, and out there for the world to see. I am already getting such an overwhelming response! People are writing to me about Zwigato in long email messages . The fact that is it resonating with a really large audience makes me feel happy. Kapil Sharma left me a message saying the same thing. He too is getting the most overwhelming response. We may be inhabiting a different world as far as the audiences are concerned, but the film seems to have found its groove.”
Nandita Das and her co-writer Samir Patil don’t juice the tragic circumstances of the delivery-boy Manas (Kapil Sharma) for tears in this gently effective drama of fringe employment, produced by Applause Entertainment. This well-cut nugget has no room for tears. Kapil delivers a performance that is keenly observant of reality: the languorous paunchy body language, the endless rounds on two-wheelers, handling difficult insulting customers at work , an invalid mother and two children at home… Nandita Das doesn’t allow a pall of gloom to descend on her narration. There are no lengthy dialogues or pumped-up polemics to prod our conscience. Throughout, the atmosphere is light and hopeful even in the darkest moments when Manas encounters the nastiest of customers.
Adds Sameer Nair, CEO of Applause Entertainment, “Zwigato is an important film, and globally relevant. Delivery is a worldwide phenomenon. As directed by Nandita, Kapil Sharma brings a unique, everyman pathos to his otherwise everyman comedic avatar. And by putting the spotlight on the lives of the often invisible, it asks us all to at least be more kind and considerate, even if we can’t do more.”
