Shriram Iyengar
Mumbai, 26 Jan 2022 16:40 IST
Aditya Sarpotdar's first zombie comedy in Marathi is current, effective and has the right balance of humour and horror to keep you glued to the seat.
Shot in the pandemic, Aditya Sarpotdar's Zombivli carries within it the feel, emotional damage and relevance of the world-changing event that has been going on these past couple of years. Through the prism of a zombie epidemic, the film mirrors the panic, insecurities and strength that people showed in this time, enhanced by humour, surprise and a sense of adventure.
Sudhir and Sapna (Amey Wagh and Vaidehi Parshurami) are a young couple who move into a towering colony in the sprawling suburb of Dombivli. Their tower is on the other side of the wall from the small Janata Nagar slum with its poor labourer population struggling for water. Vishwas (Lalit Prabhakar) is the hot-headed leader from the slum fighting for their share of water. The problem is worsened by the industrialist Musale (Vijay Nikam), whose water plant is stealing water from the people to sell it back to them.
An engineer at the water plant, Sudhir is still coming to terms with the irony of producing 'immunity-booster water' while being unable to take a bath every day in his posh housing society. Before he can process the many faces of the manipulative Musale, a zombie epidemic breaks out at a local hospital and spreads like wildfire throughout the suburb. Vishwas, Sudhir, Sapna and a few unlikely survivors team up to find a way through.
Sarpotdar takes Mahesh Iyer's story and endows it with a colourful local flavour and humour. They could not have chosen a better location than Dombivli, a bustling distant suburb of Mumbai filled with working-class people aspiring to better, and competing for living space. It allows the Faster Fene (2017) director to touch upon complex subjects like the evil of uncontrolled development, the class divide, hate-mongering and the insecurities among people incisively.
The theme of zombies may be foreign, but Sarpotdar's film gives it a very Indian, no Dombivli, touch. Perhaps the lingering effects of the pandemic add to the film's relevance and immediacy. A slight regret is the lack of local trains used in the transport, but a pandemic allows only so much leeway. The make-up and movement of the zombies are very real and surprisingly effective. A word of praise for the production team involved in creating this for the screen.
As a resident of Dombivli, your reviewer is more than familiar with the struggles of potable and usable water. To use this as a key plot point and weapon was an inspiring touch. Watching it in a theatre at Dombivli, one could feel the audience respond to that theme equally.
The film balances its humour and horror impressively. The comedy, understandably, takes centre stage but is never overdone. Every artiste from Lalit Prabhakar and Amey Wagh to Vaidehi Parshurami, Trupti Khamkar, Janaki Pathak and even the veteran Pradeep Joshi, gets their moment. The comedy is subtle, direct and sometimes satirical. The film does not shy away from making fun of the horror tropes in Indian cinema, and occasionally parodies itself with elan. The script moves with pace and keeps surprising you. While the makers leave certain subtle markers, they are for the watchful audience.
There are moments when the script falters, especially during scenes of high emotion. Perhaps they needed to be just as nuanced as the humour and the social message. Yet, they only add a little tonal dissonance to the flow, nothing more.
Amey Wagh and Lalit Prabhakar take the lead and are perfect foils to each other. As the quiet, cowardly middle-class engineer, Wagh is on point with his accidental humour, with Prabhakar taking the macho action role. The odd tic of Prabhakar's right hand is another wonderful invention. Vaidehi Parshurami, Janaki Pathak and Trupti Khamkar are brilliant as the women surrounded by clueless and sometimes silly men. Khamkar steals the show with fewer lines.
It may feel odd watching a zombie comedy on Republic Day, but Zombivli manages to deliver. In a post-pandemic world, its message of the frailty and, sometimes, flaws of human nature feels all the more necessary. This does not overshadow the absolute fun and absurdity of its zombie comedy adventure. The film is a creatively told surreal zombie comedy with teeth enough for a horror fan to enjoy.
Zombivli has been released in cinema halls in Maharashtra today.