Opening Doorz

By Martin D’Souza | Opening Doorz Editorial | March 17, 2017

Rating: 3.5 / 5

The essence: It takes immense courage to back a script like this. Kudos to the producers who believed in a ‘one-man’ film! Trapped is a movie that makes you feel its title and that is enough reason for you to watch it.

To be ‘trapped’ with what is happening to one individual on screen, and for that actor to captivate you for 90 of the 102 minutes of the duration of the movie, calls for a huge round of applause. However, for that actor to engage you throughout, he should have been backed by a visionary to have seen this film through in his mind first. On paper, everything looks good, but it is the execution of the plot that requires special talent and that is exactly where Vikramaditya Motwane hit bull’s eye.

Trapped is an ordinary love story gone horribly wrong, all because of our obsession with the mobile phone. That is one way of looking at it. The other way would be, our foolishness to get things done in a hurry and anyhow!

You are trapped with the protagonist in a completed high-rise which does not have a single occupant, save the watchman at the ground level who has difficulty in hearing.

Shaurya (Rajkumar Rao), a bespectacled, unsure man, is smitten by his office colleague Noorie (Geetanjali Thapa). He musters enough courage to ask her out. Sparks fly, and even though she is to get married two months later, Shaurya assures her that he will move out of the rented apartment he shares with four friends to a one-bedroom apartment for them to start a comfortable life.

He manages to get one on the 35^th floor of a high-rise somewhere in Prabhadevi (Mumbai) which has not yet got the Occupation Certificate from the BMC. After moving in the previous evening, and not mentioning to Noorie about the same, Shaurya is on his way to meet her when he realizes he has left his mobile inside. He turns in the key, runs in pushing the door hard. Before he can move out, the door rebounds with the force and slams shut. The key is out and the lock, from the inside, is broken!

He tries and tries and tries. He doesn’t succeed. Over a week, he is trapped in the house, shouting himself hoarse with no power supply, water, or food. His plight becomes your plight.

Rajkumar Rao powers his character brilliantly matching the mood of the moment with his body language and perfect expressions. His dejection, desire to move out and desperate attempts to attract attention to stay alive is gripping! A brilliant performance worthy of all the accolades that should come his way!

Geetanjali adds that subtle sexiness and genuine charm to the film that pushes the plot several notches higher. She has just a few scenes but manages to dive headlong into her role and leave a lasting impression. She gives a new meaning to the oft-heard statement artistes make: “It’s not the length, but the strength of the role that matters.” Even though Rajkumar Rao has the spotlight on him, Geetanjali manages to keep her own, simply by playing the character she is asked to, to the ‘T’.

After Udaan and Lootera, Motwane stamps his class yet again, with a screenplay that is completely different from the earlier two.

It takes immense courage to back a script like this. Kudos to the producers who believed in a ‘one-man’ film which has a striking resemblance to the Tom Hanks-starrer, Castaway.

A few minutes chipped off by way of the hallucination scenes, and the movie would have been much tauter. Nevertheless, Trapped is a movie that makes you feel its title and that is enough reason for you to watch it.

CREDITS
Producers: Madhu Mantena, Vikas Bahl, Anurag Kashyap
Director: Vikramaditya Motwane
Star Cast: Rajkumar Rao, Geetanjali Thapa