Kapil Sharma in a still from Nandita Das' Zwigato. (Photo: TIFF/Twitter)The new trailer of Nandita Das’s film, , starring comedian Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami has just dropped. The film promises to poignantly capture the plight of a delivery rider, his family and the gig economy, as he shuttles around delivering orders to customers on a daily basis. Sometimes he tries to be positive, but on other days, cynicism wears him down. As his wife reminds him, there’s no one to appreciate his hard work.
He encounters much disappointment and frustration, owing to orders being casually declined, or getting trapped in the never-ending chase for incentives. In order to make ends meet, his wife also takes up a job, much to his concern. Without heavy exposition, the trailer promises a realistic, layered film with nuance.
Watch Zwigato trailer
In a scene that captures the essence of the film, Kapil’s character reads from a pamphlet that says, ‘Majdoor hai isiliye mazdoor hai (He’s a labourer, that’s why he’s helpless),’ he responds, ‘Or maybe he’s helpless, that’s why he’s a labourer’. In the end he says that the company wants him to run after likes and incentives, and be a ‘good boy’.
Zwigato was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it received positive reviews. One film buff had tweeted, “Zwigato poignantly depicts the ongoing class struggle in India by bringing the audience alongside the contemporary life of a food courier in a Jharkhand. Layers of family, surveillance tech, joy, tradition, pride, partnership intersect so elegantly. Congrats, Nandita Das!” Another had tweeted that it was a ‘timely and important film’.
Zwigato has been jointly produced by Sameer Nair’s Applause Entertainment and Nandita Das Initiatives. Nandita had earlier explained why she chose comedian Kapil Sharma to play the lead role in her film, “The film attempts to make visible what’s hidden in plain sight. And for this, the cast and crew has serendipitously come together. One day, Kapil Sharma popped up on my screen! I hadn’t seen his show, but I could see him wholly representing the ‘common man’, despite not being one anymore.”