Anita ( Anupama Parameswaran) hails from a middle class family with aged parents ( Charlie and Nirosha) struggling to keep the home running. In order to help out she looks for a job. A friend asks her to come to a party in order to meet a prospective employer there.
At the party however, she gets drunk and passes out. She hides the fact from her parents with the aid of a close friend.
But to her horror, a few weeks later,
she finds that she is pregnant. Having had no physical contact with any guy, the only place something untoward could have happened was at the party when she was blacked out.
But she is terrified of revealing any of this to her parents, especially her dad, whom she fears may commit suicide due to the news.
Now its left to the two friends to somehow get out of this situation. When they try to get medical help to do so, they meet with a series of setbacks. To add to her woes, the covid lockdown comes into effect.
Time is running out and with no way out, her stressful secret can be revealed any moment.
What happens next?
The interesting story is engagingly narrated by director Jeeva. The home scenario is well established and each character well sketched out which helps is showcasing the reasoning and thinking of the leads when they try to hide facts from the parents.
The terror and desperation of Anita its well brought out by Anupama who delivers a superb performance, which is the mainstay of the film. She is the pivot of the story and sails through getting under the skin is the character hooking the viewer in every frame with her natural performance.
Charlie looks the part perfectly and Nirosha delivers a credible act as the desperate, helpless mother.
Each actor is terrific which adds to the story. The sets, lighting and camera work deserve mention as they add to the clautrophobic feeling of the heroine trapped in a desperate situation.
The Lockdown has been successfully used as the backdrop adding to the build up of tension.
The run time is crisp and so is the editing which are both a plus.
The director brings to life the middle class milieu of the film with the right locations, actors and dialogues.
At times however the film may seem to be moving at a snail's pace but the overall impact makes up for it.
The film delivers a message in the credits and also drives home several other messages via the story.
The film highlights how communucation is the key and how both generations must use it wisely to solve problems life throws. While youngsters should be more candid, the older generation should also create an atmosphere where the children are not afraid to communicate their feelings freely.
With emotions, sentiment, eye -opening moments and a slice -of-life feel to a realistically told story, Lockdown is worth a watch.
Rating 3/5
Cast:
Anupama Parameswaran, Charlie, Nirosha, Priya Venkat, Livingston, Indhumathi, Rajkumar, Shamji, Lollu Sabha Maran, Vinayaga Raj, Vidhu, Sanjivie, Priya Ganesh, Asha
Crew Details
Production House: Lyca Productions Pvt Ltd
Producer: Subaskaran
Head of Lyca Production: G.K.M. Tamil Kumaran
Director: AR Jeeva
Music: NR Raghunanthan & Siddharth Vipin
Director of Photography: K.A. Sakthivel
Editor: V.J. Sabu Joseph
Art Director: A. Jayakumar
Choreography: Sherif & Sri Girish
Stunts: Om Sivaprakash
Costume Designer: Meenakshi Shreedharan
Costumes: M. Ramakrishnan
Makeup: P.S. Chandru
SFX: Arun M
Mix: T. Udaya Kumar
DI: Pixel Light Studio
Colourist: Ranga
VFX: Lorven Studio
Stills: Chandru
Publicity Designs: Vijay VXM & Shyam V
Trailer Editor - Kalaiarasan M
PRO: Sathish Kumar
Co-Directors: S. Sagayam & C. Subramaniyan
Production Executive: Boopathi
Production Manager: Pudukkottai M. Nagu
Deputy Executive Producer: Chandrasekar V
Executive Producers: Subramanian Narayanan & M.R. Ravi
