Nandita Das, Sameer Nair on Busan Selection ‘Zwigato’: ‘The Struggle Between Man and Algorithms’
06.10.2022 - 09:07
/ variety.com
Naman Ramachandran After its world premiere in Toronto, Nandita Das’ “Zwigato” has its Asian premiere in Busan’s A Window on Asian Cinema strand. An acclaimed actor with credits including “Fire,” “Kannathil Muthamittal” and “Kamli,” Das made her directorial debut with “Firaaq” (2008), which debuted at Toronto. Her next film as director, “Manto” (2018), bowed at Cannes. “Zwigato,” her third outing in the director’s seat, also bowed at Toronto. It began life as a short film that was to be part of an anthology produced by India’s Applause Entertainment. That project didn’t come to fruition, but Applause chief Sameer Nair convinced Das to expand the idea into a feature, which she did during the course of India’s first two COVID-19 lockdowns. The film, a satire on the gig economy, follows a factory manager, who after losing his job, becomes a courier for the food delivery app Zwigato.
“As I began to delve deeper into it, I was drawn to the human aspects of this mashup of high technology and the life of the workers, who are just a cog-in-the-wheel. With the rise of the gig economy, the struggle between man and machine that Chaplin depicted in ‘Modern Times’ has now shifted to one between man and algorithms,” Das told Variety. “During the pandemic, we consumers, for our own convenience, became more and more dependent on the gig workers and less and less aware of their struggle. Following a food delivery rider and his family, over four days, tells the story of this new urban India. The film is about many small things that are hidden in plain sight,” Das added. The cast includes popular talk show host Kapil Sharma, playing against type, and acclaimed actor Shahana Goswami (“A Suitable Boy”), who previously starred in “Firaaq.”
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