Zwigato 2023 Movie Review
Manas (Kapil Sharma) loses his job as a floor manager at a factory and takes up a gig as a delivery guy for a food delivery app. The movie follows his everyday life, which is replete with ratings, penalties, and running behind incentives. Things go awry in his otherwise warm family life when his wife Pratima decides to join a mall as the cleaning staff.
The film takes the viewer through Manas’s daily hustle as his wife, Pratima (Shahana Goswami), seeks employment to support the family financially, despite his disapproval. We soon discover facets such as app companies dangling the carrot called ‘incentives,’ which takes the drivers down the rabbit hole of making maximum deliveries daily and how they are exploited at various levels. As Manas laments, ‘Woh majboor hai, is liye mazdoor hai,’ (He’s a labourer because he’s helpless) correcting a placard slogan that says, ‘Woh mazdoor hai, is liye majboor hai’ (He’s helpless because he’s a labourer).
The movie also sensitively touches upon the class and gender discrimination deeply embedded in our society. The tension of drudgery and desperation is palpable throughout the film, making it a poignant watch. Even though one knows that the economy, social system, and politics are interrelated, Zwigato packs in too much. At times it seems like a series of events stitched together, which hampers the flow of the narrative. While the first half builds the world at its own pace, the second part also takes things forward slowly, even dragging in many instances. Several sequences, such as an activist Govindraj (Swanand Kirkire) holding a protest, a man of a different faith being targeted, etc., seem slightly force-fitted.
As Nandita and co-writer Samir Patil adeptly present a relatable story, cinematographer Ranjan Palit masterfully depicts the commoner’s world through the dingy bylanes of Bhubaneshwar where the story is set. Skipping Odisha’s majestic structures and exotic beauty adds to the film’s realism. The stop-motion animation when the credits roll as Yeh Raat plays deserves a special mention.
The biggest win for Zwigato is the casting of Kapil Sharma. The film is tailor-made for him, and the comedian got into the groove smoothly. As with Manas, Kapil has the accent of a man from Jharkhand and represents the common man well. The actor brings comedy into tragedy, which doesn’t leave him and comes across like improv. Kapil excels at hiding his stress and emotions with his deadpan sense of humour, which Nandita plays well with her characterization. If there was a Hindi movie debut for Kapil, this should have been it, as Zwigato puts the actor on the map as a performer to be taken seriously. Kapil Sharma is the best thing about Zwigato, and he carries the movie on his shoulders with the same ease that he carries his delivery bag when he goes out to make deliveries.
Zwigato is not a comfort watch and might end up testing your patience. But being a cinema lover comes into play here, proving that entertaining films can be made even with the simplest of simple storytelling and don’t need a climax, which most of the film gives us. At the end of the day, life continues…
