Cargo movie review: Vikrant Massey and Shweta Tripathi's spaceship takes off ingeniously, but runs out of fuel midway
There's a plague that's clouding the judgement of the Indian film audience that plague is what I like to call the 'anti-mainstream syndrome'. In short, people need to realise that just because a film is devoid of songs, lavish production values, action, masala and stripped of every commerical element known to man, it does not automatically become a great film, set to change the course of Bollywood. Thappad is a rare example of how a totally non-commercial film can actually work wonders and impact its audience. People also need to realise that smart non-mainstream films, know how to balance commercial and non-commercial elements. AndhaDhun, Dangal, Article 15 and Saand Ki Aankh are fine examples in this regard. Most importantly, people need to judge a film on its merit, mainstream or not, lest they forget that even in the recent past, several hardcore mainstream ventures like Chak De! India, 3 Idiots, Munna Bhai MBBS, Bajrangi Bhaijaan have actually taken Bollywood forward toward better horizons. And finally, everyone needs to comprehend that every small, film or indie production, like Cargo, however unique the concept, and regardless how many film festivals they've been to, does not make for great or groundbreaking cinema.
For this, the audience need to stop blindly following agenda-driven critics, who, through some warped priorities, make movies like this Vikrant Massey-Shweta Tripathi starrer seem a crusade against big names and big movies in Hindi cinema. Really, it's not a David vs Goliath scenario like its being made out to be, and such politics for the sake of online views do a great injustice to both the skill it take to fairly review a film and the effort spend behind making one.
Scroll down for my full Cargo review...
What's it about
Netflix's Cargo merges sci-fi with Hindu mythology, showcasing futuristic rakshasas as astronauts who, after having arrived at a peace treaty with humankind, following a war in the year 2027, when they had appeared on our spatial borders, now facilitate the easy Post-Death Transition Service (PDTS) of human beings into their reincarnated next lives an imperative measure with our species facing extinction. Prahastha (Vikrant Massey) named after the general of Raavan's army who possess minor telekinesis and leads one such operation aboard spaceship Pushpak 634A, is pretty content with his isolated monotonous existence till an assistant, Yuvishka (Shweta Tripathi), blessed with healing powers joins him. Her entry slowly changes the dynamics, leading to existential and philosophical questions between the two.
What's hot
Well, the concept is red hot. Like, come on...neither Hollywood or British nor Japanese or Korean cinema (the four industries best known for ingenious sci-fi movies) have landed upon such a premise. And kudos to writer-director Arati Kadav also for the way she juxtaposes the possibilities of outer space with age-old tenets of Hinduism. And to be fair, the presentation in terms of production values and the camerawork (Kaushal Shah) matches up to the potential despite the film being shot on a shoestring budget.
What's not
What does not match up to the Cargo's potential is its tepid execution and snail's pace. I love slow-burning sci-fi provided it uses its innovative concept to say something fresh through the entire duration of its narrative. Unfortunately, after a captivating beginning, Cargo becomes complete bereft of ideas, either detouring into dreary feelings of loss and longing or recycling its own brilliant premise to the point where I got tired of it. Arati Kadav's insistence on making things move at the rate at which paint dries and her altruism of giving her composer Shezan Shaikh paid leave with almost a total lack of BGM, coupled with her editor, Paramita Ghosh's incompetence of shaking his director's narrative up, only make matters worse.
It also doesn't help that Vikrant Massey and Shweta Tripathi fail to rise above the script, displaying cardboard chemistry in each other's company a strict no-no for what's essentially a 2-person act. Nandu Madhav is pleasing to the eye, but can do little via the computer box he's shoved into.
BL Verdict
It's disheartening, and partly annoying to see how Cargo, with everything going for it to be a runaway sci-fi classic for the ages, completely squanders its potential. This one seems like a clear case of a tailor-made short film being stretched way too far. I'm going with 2 out of 5 stars.
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