A city like Mumbai, known to be the city of dreams and which is constantly bombarded with the bustle of life, will never make you think that a person can get trapped amidst it. There are always people around and life exists abundantly. However, director Vikramaditya Motwane placed the audience in a place in this same city, which was surrounded with loneliness and demanded a battle for survival.
The film makes one realise the fact that big cities can wear the make-up of a terror- packed reality. It can leave you traumatized and scarred for life. Time and situation is capable of demanding a fight for survival, a fight for life. In Vikramaditya's Trapped, our survivor is determined to survive from a situation that left the audience experience an eerie, cold, uncomfortable rollercoaster of emotions and fears.
Shaurya, a young lad works in a call centre. Unlike any other bachelor, he was fighting his battles. Like any other Mumbai resident, he was trying to pull together the means of surviving with his income. He lived in a shared apartment, with zero connection with his other flatmates.
His wish to live with his girlfriend finally made him gather the courage to rent a separate apartment. His low budget made him choose a flat on the 35th floor in an apartment block that was uninhabited. Ironically the name of the apartment was Swarg(Heaven).
Shaurya had zero idea about the havoc awaiting him. His first day in his new room took him inside a walking nightmare. The front door to the flat accidentally gets locked and he is trapped inside. His phone runs out of battery and the building did not have proper wiring and consequently, the electricity gets cut off.
It should not be a big deal, right? He can scream for help and people should hear him and eventually reach out for help. And like any other person in such a situation would do, Saurya screamed for help too.
Saurya is not a dumb guy who would miss out the obvious possible ways to escape. He is clever and skilled and makes himself various tools out of ordinary household items. He possesses instincts which are better than an average city-dweller.
He writes help on a placard with toothpaste and throws it out of the window. He also hangs up some clothes and lights them on fire in order to gain attention by someone.
However, to his utter dismay, not a single soul hears him or reaches out for help. Soon he runs out of food and water. But Shaurya is not ready to die yet. His zeal to live makes him optimistic and lets him cling on to the last bit of hope.
'Trapped' makes use of natural light. Cinematographer Siddharth Diwan presents the frame with the use of natural light. He intentionally cuts the audience off from the outside world by restricting the vision. The outside world looks like a world on auto-pilot where nobody cares about anybody. It seems like nobody is aware of the existence of the abandoned building.
This perspective makes Trapped a scary dreadful experience.
Motwane makes us stick to the character for a long time so that we can experience the emotions that Rao is going through. He frames the character in such a way that we can feel Rao's anxiety. It feels like watching Rao very closely as the camera crosses Rao so many times.
Since there aren't many props, it is Rao's responsibility to keep the audience engaged and while making them feel trapped. Rao does it best.
Motwane wants the viewers to empathise with Shaurya. There are moments when Shaurya's energy levels comes down. However, he is not weak intentionally.
This optimistic attitude is important as it involves an ordinary folk in the midst of the fallacy. Shaurya fights his battles silently, just like most of us. Nobody would actually care about Rao's win, but it matters more than anything to him. Rao made sure he do justice to his battle.
The film runs for 102 minutes and Motwane managed to keep the audience hooked in a single apartment throughout those 102 minutes. Rao and Motwane's combination made this possible. Trapped is unique in the way because it is not similar to any other one-room drama. It stays as Shaurya's personal story, an achievement that matters only to him. It resembles a plant surviving in the most weakest conditions. It is not a cinematic celebration of a survivor.
The Sound Design in the film does an excellent job to make the audience feel the right emotions at the right time. The silence, the screams, the sighs, everything is perfectly layered by Sound Designer Anish John.
Motwane is transforming into one of those brave director who makes excellent use of spaces and silence. All in all, Trapped reflects urban horror.
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