Unpaused: Naya Safar Web Review - Pause, play; you’ll suffer not

Unpaused Naya SafarOn Amazon Prime VideoDir Nupur Asthana Ayappa KM Ruchir Arun Shikha Makan Nagraj ManjuleCast Shreya Dhanwanthary Geetanjali KulkarniRating 35The first season of this timely anthology Unpaused I remember showed up on Amazon Prime Video in December 2020 Most of us believed then the worst of COVID19 was behind usSurprised almost but lauding separate filmmakersunits for having pulled off highly competent professional short films as a featurelength anthology It felt like a visual novelty of sorts While the world was barely stepping out of a lockdownWatch VideoThis second equally accomplished compilation similarly set during the pandemic is evidently about the lsquosecond waversquo That took place less than six months since the first Unpaused A fatal catastrophe that struck in some form practically every Indian home In a way that no event in recent history can arguably matchAnd that this anthology does a fair job with empathetically fictionalising and calmly surveying Putting in place perfect characters and stories to match different worlds differently targeted by the same virus depending on circumstances that defined their livesWhether that be in the first episode a young double income no kidsrsquo DINK couple going about their day over what had by then become a fully adjustable professional normal called lsquoWork from Homersquo WFHmdasha term that actually meant working over weekends for harried employees beforeBesides usual terms and conditions of a sequestered life between the young WFH married couplemdashthe way the superb leads Shreya Dhanwanthary Priyanshu Painyuli simply look at each other on screen cannot be written down in a scriptmdashwhat Nupur Asthanarsquos The Couple also highlights is how some employers behaved when the chips were downDownsizing further still Joblessness compounding problems of corona Humans not caring for human issues is obviously a bigger problem than a virus Because therersquos no vaccine against itSome simply call it capitalism The best of us got reduced to ldquostatisticsrdquo as expressed in this short film Whatrsquos left unexpressed is how only the few billionaires became multiple times richer than they already wereThis short might hit home harder particularly for those similarly hit by such HR lsquotough callsrsquo God knows how many there are And yet if you consider an MBA grad with an engineering degree losing her job may hardly be the same in the pyramid of tragedy as a man who makes a living off burning the dead at a time like thisThatrsquos what the fifth and final episode of this omnibus looks at with the film Vaikunth directed and enacted by Nagraj Manjule Sairaat The signagegraffiti outside the lead characterrsquos crematorium reads ldquoYahaan ameer aur gareeb ka bistar ek hi hota hai The rich and poor share bed hererdquoBookended between these two extreme scenariosmdashliving in a ldquoluxurious prisonrdquo as my little nephew calls it to fighting for daily existencemdashthe filmmakers behind this anthology pan the camera across people who we know still had to go out and risk their livesGetting littler in return As with the brilliant Geetanjali Kulkarni in the second episode Ayappa KMrsquos War Room playing teacher turned temporary healthcare worker answering desperate calls on the municipality helplineOr the young delivery boy in the fourth episode Shikha Makanrsquos Gond ke Laddu couriering packages for starratings Or indeed in the third episode Ruchir Arunrsquos Teen Tigada a bunch of robbers who have nowhere to go with their truck full of loot because there is lockdown outsideThe ideal way to watch an anthology such as Unpaused Naya Safar is to adequately pause between separately clickable 25miniute episodes soak in the substance of what you caught and then play the next That way you wonrsquot suffer at allWhich isnrsquot to suggest the films are of equal qualitymerit Canrsquot be Most such compilations are short film contests with personal favourites and inevitably one film that universally stands out This is as much a pandemic genre of its own Not that you should let this influence you in any way but on my list itrsquos clearly E1gtE5E2gtE4E3The conflict over whether such an anthology must be classified as feature film or series remains of course In my head itrsquos a series what else Nobody watches a feature over five instalmentsWhat uniformly unites this lot still beyond COVID19 as the central theme is its outlook Thatrsquos positive I mean it by the filmmakersrsquo response to the tragedy And not positive for corona which is a negative for the world Millions died No one we know in this series doesAnd yet for an eternally amnesic race this series like so much else serves as important fictional record for the future Something I felt we had nothing of from the 1919 Spanish Flumdashhardly a mention in our history books That are otherwise full of WWI and Indiarsquos freedom movement stories from the time which obviously didnrsquot affect as many nooks and crannies of the planetDonrsquot wanna speak too soon in January 2021 that this shit is close to over yet But we should see this engaging series and save it still Sab yaad rakha jayegamdashimportant to remember