REVIEW DOTS

Producer- Director: Shilpa Krishnan Shukla

Star Cast: Ahaana Krishna, Sai Pogaru , Saran Jith, Aparna Pradeep, Parna Pethe, Raghav Ranganathan, Lalit Prabhakar, Sishir Sharma, Suman Nagarkar and Aishwarya Kumar

Genre: Social

Rating: ***

Emotionally Intricate but Verbose!

Jyothi Venkatesh

The film DOTS is a brainchild of Singapore-based director Shilpa Krishnan Shukla, who has come up with the unique idea of getting together 10 well-known actors from six film industries. The interesting verbose web series has been fully shot and produced remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown. Each segment features a conversation between two strangers who are brought together by an imaginary online dating app called DOTS.

The film in a nutshell sets out to unfurl in front of us how the lockdown impacts various people, how they handle boredom, loneliness, fear as well as anxiety in his or her own way. It is based on a fictional social media site that sets out to connect strangers from around the world based on a set of premeditated criteria’s. They then have two hours to interact, after which their virtual connection will be lost forever.

The lockdown imposed in most nations across the world has many of us thinking about the connections we make in our life. As we spend time alone, apart from the ones we love, and away from other human contact, no wonder we end up seeking out connections via social media. Dots looks at how five couples connect with one another during these stressful and tenuous times. The interesting and lively emotional characters talk about 'love and loss, hopes and dreams, identities and choices' as they make a first time attempt in an dating app to get to know each other, to alleviate their boredom especially during the current recession which has us redefine what we think of humanity thanks to the pandemic .

The best part of the intriguing film is that each one of the actors stands out in his own way and literally gets into the actual skin of his role. Bumping off each other’s awesome energy is essential to create memorable as well as palpable chemistry but they emote flawlessly, even without being provided with the luxury of physical interaction. It is realistic to see each character gliding to make the transition from being painfully awkward at first, to having some heartwarmingly overwhelming and saucy moments towards the end of the two hours.

Whether it is Parna Pathe as lesbian Saira or Lalit Prabhakar as divorcee Shakti, Shishir Mishra, as senior citizen Roy or Ahana Krishna as Karuna, each and every actor is extremely good. While Aishwarya Kumar as Nivedita scores with her expressions Shilpa Krishnan Shukla walks away with accolades for her detailed writing as well as deft long distance direction

To sum up, the film Dots is an intensely personal film with succeeds in tugging at your hearts and a big feather in the cap of Shilpa Krishnan Shukla. Watch it if you like emotional and intricate sagas on layers and layers of relationship but if you hate dreary and verbose conversations between five different couples, avoid watching it.