Cargo - Movie Review

Director: Arati Kadav

Writer: Arati Kadav

Cast: Vikrant Massey, Shweta Tripathi, Nandu Madhav

DOP: Kaushal Shah

Editor: Paramita Ghosh

Streaming On: Netflix

Set largely inside a spaceship, the Netflix film follows the demon Prahastha (Vikrant Massey) and his assistant Yuvishka (Shwetha Tripathi), who help transition human beings into the afterlife. As they travel through space, the film focuses on their internal journeys of what death means to the ones left behind.

From the first shot itself you know that this is going to be unlike any other Indian movie. A sci-fi indie film from India isn't common place and follows a unique and original concept that explores deep and nuanced themes regarding life and death which adds to it's immersive experience. This is one of the few films that portrays death in a comedic way along with witty humour and sharp editing.

We cut back to the human world where a certain person is attempting to do something or just going about their daily lives and instead of showcasing their death, we instantly cut to them reaching the spaceship which is pretty funny and slightly tragic. But we don't feel guilty about it.

We see our protagonist "Prahastha" played by Vikrant Massey who is a "raakshas." But isn't the conventional Hindu Mythology "Raakshas" (meaning monster), instead, in this universe, it's just humans with superhuman abilities. Prahastha just does his job without questioning anything. 

"The idea of giving Vikrant and Shweta costumes was that they’d be sorted with one outfit and wouldn’t have to change much. Vikrant wears a blue uniform because he’s been there for so long, he’s blended in with his blue surroundings. Shweta’s is yellow because she’s new, she stands out." - Arati Kadav (director)

As several "Cargos" enter the "Pushpak" (spaceship), we figure out our characters' powers as a way to understand them. Prahastha has telekinesis abilities and Shwetha has healing powers. But her powers start to falter, as slowly she starts connecting with the Cargos. Somewhat like how a doctor's hand might shake when performing an operation if their patient is a loved one.

Even the budget restraints caused the crew to come up with new and inventive ways to handle situations and make the film they wanted to make.

"One of the walls of Yuvishka’s room is made of metallic components. All of those are aluminium parts that came from an old keyboard we got from a raddiwala. There was a mass dump somewhere and I’m shocked at how much we got from there. We also found two discarded ATMs, which we used as the palm-reading machines. The two suitcases Yuvishka comes in with are actually two discarded ATM money boxes. 

A lot of single-location films can get boring because it’s very tough to keep people engaged when you don’t give them visual respite. So we used a lot of colours to break up the monotony. The arrival area is blue but the transition area is green, to give it a hospital vibe. We couldn’t switch it up too much, because paint was too expensive. We used lighting to make the tunnel look orange." - Arati Kadav

THE VFX-  "We shot the film in 30 days, but VFX took a year. We hired two companies, one for the heavy-duty work and another for the smaller stuff. If you watch the film carefully, you’ll notice that we only use green screens while shooting at a specific angle. None of the other angles we’ve shot at used a green screen, otherwise it would’ve become a VFX-heavy film. For the other angles, we printed and pasted pages on the background to fool people into thinking it was a background created in post-production."

The names: Prahastha was the demon commander of Ravana’s army. Pushpak (Vimana) was the flying chariot that Ravana stole from the King of Lanka, Kubera; which adds a layer of nuance and a connection between Hindu Mythology and Science fiction. 

The production design (by Mayur Sharma) is a key component of duality. It features retro TV sets and ATM machines as computer screens, customised vacuum cleaners as healing machines, card-swiping machines as fax feeders. It has a DIY feel to it which grounds the film, but doesn't take you away from the experience. It instead feeds into the world building which is a major plus point. 

And expectedly Shwetha and Vikrant don't disappoint as Shwetha portrays the human ability to empathise and emotionally connect. Whereas Vikrant portrays outside shell of heartlessness and an inner depth to Prahastha masterfully.

 But this film doesn't really emotionally resonate as well. It gets lost in translation at times we needed a more human factor to it to help us get attached to the film completely.

"Cargo" is an ambitious passion project of Arati Kadav, and is one Vision, which I appreciate and explores themes that go above and beyond and is an immersive ,visual and auditory experience that deserves to be celebrated.

"I think the beauty of life lies in death. Once you acknowledge death, you start valuing your time here more. While I was ruminating on this, the one-liner that came to my mind was: An immigration office in space for dead people. When this idea came to me, I felt that this was the right budget for it." - Arati Kadav

- 4/5

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