From the film’s synopsis: In a pandemic period, life cannot stop until time stops, meanwhile precaution is better than cure.
In this quarantine time short, we witness an elderly woman going on about her daily chores, all the while wearing a cloth mask on her face. As TV news broadcast the latest updates of the pandemic, she sweeps the floor, cooks, cleans around and she performs a ritual. Meanwhile, her son (?) is on his phone, his laptop and seems to have a cough that is getting worse.
Suraj Vilas Dalvi‘s effort seems to focus on two axes. The first one is to show the irresponsibility of the son (who could be interpreted as the personification of all Indian youths) in contrast to the mother’s meticulous attitude (who could personify the mature and elderly, accordingly). The fact that the mother looks healthy and the son not, obviously implies that precaution is the way to go in such time. The second is that life goes on even in these extreme circumstances of quarantines and pandemics, in a message that is also communicated through the constant background sound of a clock ticking.
Regarding the visuals, the film is obviously a homemade one, although Dalvi shows some ability in the way he follows the woman with his camera. The same applies to the editing, which through frequent cuts, gives a sense of speed to a rather uneventful narrative. On the other hand, the repeated music theme, which is occasionally combined with the clock sound, becomes somewhat tiring after a fashion.
Despite the fact that “Pandemic” does not rise above the limitations of a home-made film, Dalvi still manages to communicate his comments and seems to have grasped at least some of the basics of filmmaking.
