Vikramaditya Motwane’s Trapped is a survival story so good, it will remind you of such memorable Hollywood films like Castaway and 27 Hours. The premise of one man, trapped inside a solitary apartment tower, 35 stories above civilisation is pure drama. This little film has no frills, just a taut, thrilling narrative where one man tries to survive without food, water, electricity and help. Rajkummar Rao’s performance makes this movie as good as it is. Honest, gritty and quirky, Trapped is the quintessential thinking man’s thriller.
The key word to describe Trapped is simple. The build up to how Rajkummar Rao’s Shaurya gets locked in an unoccupied high rise in the heart of Mumbai is straightforward. The setup, Shaurya’s panicky promise to girlfriend Noorie (Geetanjali Thapa) about finding a house within 24 hours, is effortlessly established. Once Shaurya reaches his towering prison to be, cruel luck locks him in. There’s no water, no electricity, one packet of biscuits and a phone with dying battery. All through the build up, its established that Shaurya is a guy who can’t keep his nerves. He’s flustered by the very sound of mice. He’s your average Joe, a regular boy in a big city. As you watch his hopes and desires turn into a nightmare of isolation and despair, the drama of Trapped puts a choke hold on you. The situations that lead up to Shaurya being trapped alone in an apartment in a 35 storey tower are written very well. He makes a few logical calls from his phone, but the dying battery and his anxiety get the better of him.
As survival movies go, Trapped is a feature with just one character, fighting the odds. Rajkummar Rao is locked in an apartment that has a TV, a fridge, an air conditioner, water heater, everything you’d expect from a city home. But none of it works as the electricity dies down. Slowly, with each passing day, his character’s solitude and lack of resources create a sense of doom. Trapped focusses on survival in a big bustling city. Where even a state of the art apartment building can become a desolate island. That rare occasion when technology and civilization can’t save a man. The writing of Trapped is intimate and insightful. Vikramaditya Motwane’s direction and execution is clinical. The eye for detail is exemplary as the smallest of things like the door shutting on its own or the electricity tripping off seem absolutely authentic.
Rajkummar Rao’s character has been written with great detail too. As the young man fears sundry things, you can see a bit of yourself in each of his reactions. His trysts with a mouse, pigeons, cockroaches and ants are both funny and thoughtful. The reason all.of it works out is because Rajkummar Rao delivers a performance that is honest and authentic. His efforts put the emotion into this film. Fear and hope play a big part in Trapped. Both these emotions come through only because Rajkummar Rao is so good.
Vikramaditya Motwane could have refrained from the Castaway inspired romantic conflict in the third act. While it doesn’t make the film any less effective, the same situation could’ve been used to convey grittier emotions. But the few inconsequential slip ups aside, Trapped is a film that pulls you into the void of fear and despair with remarkable ease. It’s a thriller compels you to think, analyse and pray. This is an intimate affair with the scarier prospects of a lonesome life in a big city. Insightful and effective, Trapped is a must watch for all movie buffs.
This is a serious invasion of privacy!
Vidya Balan is one jovial lady. But she’s done with the incessant questions about when she’ll have a baby. The talk has been at an all-time high recently since the actress was spotted repeatedly outside a doctor’s office. “It was annoying. I could be going to a clinic for acne too! Why is it that every time a woman post marriage visits a doctor, there are whispers of her pregnancy?” said Vidya.
She adds, “I don’t think it’s anyone’s business except mine and my husband’s (Siddharth Roy Kapur). It was a serious invasion of our privacy, but our country is such. The day I got married, one of my uncles told me at the wedding venue, ‘Next time I see you (her and Siddharth), I should be looking at three people, not two’. This was even before our wedding pictures could be clicked. I politely laughed because we hadn’t even decided on our honeymoon destination then.”
Vidya commented on how this baby obsession needs to end since there’s so much more to focus on. “What is this baby obsession? I am not a baby-making machine. Anyway, the world population is on a rise. If some people don’t have children, it’s fine,” she said. Well said, Vidya.
