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| TRAPPED - MOVIE REVIEW. |
Over the years, we've seen how in most survival films the protagonists are caught in extreme situations - between boulders (127 hrs), stranded in the sea (Life of Pi), washed ashore on to some uninhabited island (Cast Away). Trapped is about the horror and danger lurking in the ordinary and mundane – a modern tale about the likelihood of getting marooned in the security and safety of your own home, here, between the hush-hush of Mumbai. No wonder the threats and the fears are so gruesome.
Trapped marks a step in history of Indian Cinema as the first movie that willingly left the interval and provided uninterrupted show.
("What!? There is no interval? Yes. There isn't).
Genre :- Thriller/Survival Drama
Run-time :- 102 minutes.
Cast :- Rajkummar Rao, Geetanjali Thapa
Director :- Vikramaditya Motwane.
Plot – ‘Trapped’ is a story of Shaurya (Rajkummar Rao), who falls in love with his office colleague Noorie (Geetanjali Thapa). Noorie is set to get married to someone else. Shaurya wants Noorie to be with him, but does not have a decent place to live with her. Thus, Shaurya decides to rent a good place for both of them. With minimum budget, Shaurya ends up getting a vacant flat in a disputed high rise building. Before he could let Noorie know about the place, Shaurya gets trapped inside that empty flat.
In the absence of food, water and electricity, 35 storeys above the ground, he struggles to remain alive by resorting to measures like lighting a fire, throwing things out of the window like television and so on. However, everything goes in vain and the zeal to live drives him to be audacious. But how far can enthusiasm take him? Does he succeed or his physical and mental turmoil takes a toll on him? Watch the movie and find out!
Direction and Screenplay :-
As a storyteller, director Vikramaditya Motwane makes sure to create the required tension with the first rate pairing of writers Amit Joshi and Hardik Mehta. The screenplay has a quality of interlocking elements like Lego which are being fueled by Rajkummar's brilliant acting, thus giving this movie a boost.
Motwane deftly demonstrates, an unearthly vision of the present-day Mumbai. The city is a silent member of the cast. It gives Shaurya the power to dream, but displays a hostile and opposed behavior beyond the grilled windows through which he yells for help. His screams ricochet through the air, and he learns the hard way that in Mumbai, you are well and truly on your own, even in the middle of a crowd.
The pithy and poetic writing shows how a social animal trapped in a society (getting the pun) uses every element in the barely furnished apartment as a weapon towards his freedom. As victory is fleeting, and sparks of hope are quickly getting extinguished, A rat drops by, pigeons flutter in, and a cockroach becomes a metaphor for life. This is a great piece of artwork.
There are scenes wherein the whole theater squirms and gasps at the same time, be it FOR or WITH Shaurya, thus depicting how impactful the story telling is.
The only problem with ‘Trapped’ is that the movie has a one liner story and runs mainly on its screenplay, which starts to move unsteadily like a drunkard in the last 20 mins and loses its connect towards the climax. The culmination part is highly missing.
⏩ Editing and Cinematography :-
The Editor, Nitin baid, has managed to keep it short yet meticulously interesting. Full marks on that. But on the contrary, Trapped does not quite manage to convey the inevitable passage of time in that cramped space. I mean, some particulars about time, would have smoothened the seam.
Cinematographer Siddarth Diwan's camera moves in accordance with the facts and reality in our protagonist's ordeal. Diwan draws us into Shaurya's struggles by hugging him so close that it often feels like we are walking alongwith him rather than watching him.
⏩ Music :-
Background svore plays a pivotal role in making this movie lot more intriguing and exhilarating. Alokananda Dasgupta, uses ambient noises like metal scraping, metal clangs, or the water droplets falling on the floor, which goes well along with the scenes.
⏩ The Highs -
▶ Rajkummar Rao, he becomes the movie’s thumping heart. Rao’s talent has been highly demonstrated in his previous films, and it reaches its apex with Trapped. Despite inanimate objects and mute creatures to play off against, Rao brilliantly and effortlessly transforms the location and the movie into a battlefield of emotions and takes you along, in his journey to escape from his agony.
▶ Trapped makes us look afresh at all the obvious things we take for granted. A plate full of buttery pav bhaji or the ride in the Mumbai local packed with sweaty bodies, the daily stress of office, the luxury of bathing, or simply a packet of biscuits suddenly seem life-affirming and meaningful when life itself is slipping away from you. Such is the beauty of Trapped.
▶ A thought-provoking concept. The same flat would have otherwise felt like a great room with a magnificent view - sprawling, shiny new constructions, the sea at a distance. However, for Shaurya it becomes a hell hole, despite the “welcome” banner on the wall. A place he gets shut in without a soul being aware of his whereabouts.
▶ We all have had certain fears as kid, which have registered their place even in our adulthood. My being rats and a paranormal presence hiding behind the curtain. No kidding! And Motwane has zeroed in on such fears and succulently whipped up the sinister quotient of the movie. Some sequences are so precise and impactful, it made me shook an imaginary rat off my foot, only to realize that what I mistook for a rodent was in fact my footwear, which I had removed for comfort. Embarrassed enough, I looked around to check if my fellow audience had noticed my shameful plight. To my luck, they had not. Phew!
⏩ The Lows -
▶ While there are small plot errors like
- Our hero finding conveniently placed Match-Box with an unending supply of matchsticks,
- Not a soul in his life bothering to look for him.
But they are too immaterial and irrelevant to focus on.
▶ For the most part, what we get is a surface feel of the man behind his appearance. Too much has been explained about his physical condition and too little regarding his psychogical order. This is the only thing that prevents Shaurya from entering into the league of Chuck in Castaway, Pi in Life of Pi and Aron in 127 Hours.
▶ Shaurya’s survival tactics remain admirable throughout if you give them some thought, but the manner in which they are portrayed becomes too matter-of-fact after a while and ceases to inspire the awe towards the end.
▶ One major glitch that needed better handling is when there was a hope, Rao’s character could have done more to get the attention. (NOT A SPOILER, CHILL)
⏩ Performances :-
▶ Trapped showcases Rajkummar Rao's best performance till date. A scene where he is petrified of a rat is one of his best scenes from his career. Whatever role he gets he transforms himself completely into the character; viz - Nawazuddin Siddique. May it be a young and bubbly journalist that we saw last year in Aligarh or a destitute poor farmer who gets ‘trapped’ into the vicious cycle of money in ‘Citylights’, he is undoubtedly one of the most talented young actors working in industry today, and he surely deserves an award for the same.
▶ Geetanjali Thapa is reasonably effective in her brief appearance in as Shaurya’s friend/partner Noorie.
▶ Khushboo Upadhyay has barely a few seconds of screen time, but those moments are enough to note that she is an artiste with a screen presence who is worth watching out for.
⏩ Watch o Not ?
Defi-effin-ately!! Waiting for me to buy you a ticket? Comeon! Grab a popcorn and sit back to enjoy this enthralling and spine-chilling ride. This is one such movie that has instilled my faith, in Indian Cinema.
⏩ Verdict :
Motwane’s smart approach to the story-telling, the screenplay, his understanding of Rajkummar Rao as an actor and his strengths and then Rajkummar’s comprehension of what the character and director demand, these people made the movie worth every penny. Facing your fears and life being an unending cycle - Trapped is a movie worth watching out this weekend. The movie is so stimulating that from now on, if I go someone's house or in a room alone, I will definitely check whether the knobs are working, electricity is fine and yes, the battery is fully charged.
Ratings - 4.3/5
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