Streaming Features

Lockdown Day #20: Joy Mathew’s Shutter, Or The Worst Case Lockdown Scenario, On MX Player

How do you think some of our older films would fare, if their central situation is reworked to incorporate the lockdown?

Vishal Menon

Along with the news of the lockdown getting extended, we've also been hearing of several bizarre incidents that are bringing out the worst in people. A student in Mangaluru got caught as he tried to smuggle his friend into his apartment in a suitcase. There's also a report that suggests several people from across the world are experiencing unusually weird and vivid nightmares as they find it hard to sleep during this period. 

When people write movies in the coming years, it will be impossible for them to not add a line or two about this phase and what the characters were doing. But before that, how do you think some of our older films would fare, if their central situation is reworked to incorporate the lockdown? For instance, imagine Fahadh Faasil-starrer Maheshinte Prathikaram. What if the lockdown were announced just a day after Mahesh gets beaten up right at the town centre? Not only would his enemy have remained in the State but his prathikaram would still need to be kept on hold for months due to social distancing. What's worse is that he would be stuck at home after facing his biggest humiliation and there's nothing to do, but sit at home and cry looking at the mirror. 

But what if there's a worse situation to be in? Imagine you are Rasheed (Lal) from Shutter. You're locked up with a sex worker in a tiny shop in a building just metres away from your family. After your accomplice who has the keys to set you free goes missing, what if the lockdown got announced? Can a terrible situation be made even worse? To survive 21 days in a closed space with one more person to feed, you'll be stuck in a predicament where you either die hungry inside, or come out alive but realise that it has become impossible to live anymore. Can you think of a worse film situation to be in during the lockdown?

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