– Chaitanya  Padukone

“Talented actor Prateik Babbar’s de-glam intense role-performance  as the poor migrant-worker Madhav in  Original OTT movie India Lockdown  will prove to be a tribute-homage to his legendary mother Smita Patil”, assures acclaimed director Madhur Bhandarkar . Multiple National Awards winner Bhandarkar, who is known mostly for his hard-hitting realistic landmark movies like ‘Chandni Bar’ and ‘Page 3’  happens to be an ardent fan of late legendary versatile actress Smita Patil.  The  recent ‘Babli Bouncer’ movie director ( Madhur) was speaking at the trailer launch of his much-awaited maverick movie ‘India Lockdown’ which starts streaming on ZEE 5 from Dec 2. This movie which  amalgamates four contrasting bitter-tragic-truth, yet overwhelming real-life woman-centric stories  has an ensemble star cast of  Prateik Babbar opposite Sai Tamhankar  as ‘Phoolmati’ ( both migrant-workers married couple,   Shweta Basu Prasad (as sultry sex-worker Mehrunissa ),  Aahana Kumra ( as an upmarket girl commercial pilot Moon) and Prakash Belawadi ( South Indian character Nageshwara Rao) .

At the movie trailer launch, both slim-and-trim style-icons Aahana Kumra  and Sai Tamhankar were clad in dare-bare yet dignified outfits and stole the show.  In fact, Sai who plays a total de-glam character in ‘India Lockdown’  impressed the invited media  fraternity with her  off-screen smart trendy dress-sense.

Recalling how he was signed for this dehati character, Prateik recalled shared how when he visited director Madhur’s office everyone was bewuildered, “That’s because my hair was coloured with a blue-dye shade and I had worn fancy sun-glasses and I had several body-skin-tattoos.  Madhur-Sir told me that he had seen my legendary actress-mother  ( ‘late’ Smita Patil) in such de-glam realistic roles in  various movies. So he insisted that I should watch my Mother’s movies like  ‘Aakrosh’ , ‘Chakra’ and even ‘Pet Pyaar aur Paap’ as a reference point.  When he mentored and explained to me and said that my performance would be a homage-tribute to my mother, that was my biggest motivating factor . That’s how, I put my best possible effort into getting into the skin of  my screen-character Madhav  in ‘India Lockdown’ and making it look so authentic,” enthuses Prateik.

Versatile actress Sai Tamhankar ( also a huge fan of Smita Patil) honestly shared that “initially she could not relate fully to the poor migrant worker-character Phoolmati. “Then gradually I reconciled to the bitter reality that “aisa bhi hota hai” ,”  reacted Sai who also shared that it was also self-realization that today she is 200 per cent more grateful that she is so privileged in real-life.

On a parting note, director Madhur Bhandarkar says that his latest movie ‘India Lockdown’ is also depicting bright rays of  optimistic hope . Also it showcases the amazing endurance-power and resilience of  Indians from different social strata  to bravely face hardships during the pandemic and not give up so easily.