Star Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Geetanjali Thapa, Khushboo Upadhyay
Advertisement
Director: Vikramaditya Motwane
Advertisement
What’s Bad: Vikramaditya Motwane’s story has no timeline and in certain cases, the story fumbles with its cinematic liberties.
Loo Break: This gripping story has no space for a popcorn refill. Get trapped in this one! (The film will be screened without intervals)
Watch or Not?: Trapped is no regular movie and hence not everyone will enjoy it. Those having a penchant for survival dramas will find it intriguing enough.
User Rating:
Shaurya (Rajkummar Rao) secretly admires his office colleague Noorie (Geetanjali Thapa). At first shy, Shaurya takes baby steps to try and woo his lady until he finally lands up on a dinner date with her.
The duo strike a chord in no time and friendship starts to turn into love. Noorie is engaged to someone else and when the time for her marriage nears, Shaurya asks her to move in with him. She agrees on a condition that he finds a place for them to stay.
With a limited budget on hand and merely two days to move in, Shaurya finds a flat in an empty high rise building that has no other members, but a partially deaf watchman.
In a hurry to welcome Noorie on their new abode, Shaurya accidentally locks himself in. With no water and electricity, how will Shaurya survive? Will he be able to break himself free from this entrapment?
Vikramaditya Motwane’s Trapped is a genius effort. Conceptually, the film is highly appealing and especially if one thinks about it on a broader perspective, we are all trapped in this city with something or the other. The film on some levels also forms as a social commentary on our lifestyle.
He chooses Shaurya’s entrapment in the heart of the city and shows us how difficult it is to seek help in a bustling city like Mumbai.
The film takes off on a cheerful note as we see Shaurya and Noorie’s cute conversations. In no time of course, we are about to see Shaurya’s completely different side, once he gets trapped. The frustration is rightly tapped into. Although, one does question as to why someone would move into an empty building and not check basic amenities like water and electricity supplies before moving in. Also, Shaurya calling for a locksmith after getting trapped seemed quite far fetched, instead he would’ve called a friend.
The film has fewer dialogues and majority of it is based on emotional connect through the protagonist’s act. It is amazing how Motwane puts together, the journey of a man who takes on the task of finding a new way to escape the building every single day or his sheer happiness of collecting water in the rains for his survival.
One of the major setbacks for me in the story was, the missing timeline. We’re not updated about how many days he’s been trapped in the flat and I kind of feel that was crucial for the story, especially to see how his personality fluctuates with time. At what point his patience breaks and lead a ‘meat ban’ supporter like him to hunt down pigeons and barbecue them for survival, remains unclear due to lack of a timeline.
Advertisement
Rajkummar Rao gives a brilliant performance in the film. He makes sure you feel his angst, disgust and helplessness, all at once. He particularly excels in the scenes where he strikes a conversation with a rat and tells him rat jokes.
Geetanjali Thapa looks pretty and does her part well.
This is Vikramaditya Motwane’s third film after, Udaan and Lootera, both if which have their own standing. The filmmaker brings us a survival drama this time and it is certainly yet another feather to his cap.
On the lines of Danny Boyle’s 127 hours, which was yet another survival story, Motwane chooses to make it a lot more interesting with a local setting. How many people fear getting trapped in a building? Well, after watching this film, many people may develop a new fear for high rises.
Sidharth Diwan captures amazingly, the claustrophobia, the eerie feel that Shaurya’s facing in the apartment.
Background score by Aloknanda Dasgupta is impressive and goes well with the scenes considering there are not many dialogues.
Overall, Motwane’s Trapped is engaging enough in spite of its obvious loopholes.
Trapped promises a brilliant performance by Rajkummar Rao. This engaging tale is not everyone’s cup of tea. Watch it for the love of survival dramas. A 3/5 for this trapped attempt!
Trapped releases on 17th March, 2017.
Share with us your experience of watching Trapped.
Advertisement
