Shahana Goswami Archives

July 14, 2023

by Carla Hay

Pictured from left to right: Neeraj Kabi, Dipannita Sharma, Ishika Mehra, Niki Walia, Madhav Deval, Shahana Goswami, Rahul Bose, Shashank Arora and Prajakta Koli in “Neeyat” (Photo courtesy of FunAsia Films)

“Neeyat” (2023)

Directed by Anu Menon

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in Scotland and briefly in India, the dramatic film “Neeyat” features a mostly Indian cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A billionaire gathers family members and friends for a lavish birthday celebration at his remote Scottish castle, but not everyone makes it out of this reunion alive, and a tough CBI agent from India is on the scene to investigate the murders.

Culture Audience: “Neeyat” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching idiotic and poorly acted “whodunit” mysteries.

Amrita Puri and Vidya Balan in “Neeyat” (Photo courtesy of FunAsia Films)

“Neeyat” is a very inferior imitation of movies based on Agatha Christie novels. Most of the acting performances are cringeworthy and not credible. It’s also fairly easy to figure out the killer’s motive, even with all the plot distractions. There are enough plot holes to sink this already weak “whodunit” mystery.

Directed by Anu Menon, “Neeyat” (which means “motive” in Hindi) takes place mostly in Scotland, but almost all of the characters in the movie are from India. Menon co-wrote the filmsy “Neeyat” screenplay with Girvani Dhyani, Advaita Kala and Priya Venkataraman. Everything about “Neeyat” tries desperately to be suspenseful when the movie is actually quite dull and silly in too many scenes.

“Neeyat” begins in Scotland, where a pompous, middle-aged billionaire Ashish “AK” Kapoor (played by Ram Kapoor) has invited several family members and friends to his large, cliffside estate called Highgraves Castle. The occasion is to celebrate AK’s birthday. The event planner is a recently hired young man named Tanveer (played by Danesh Razvi), who is efficient and eager to please his new boss. Tanveer is the one who greets most of the guests when they arrive.

AK owns a company in India called AK Aeronautics, which he wants to be the number one outer-space program in the world. AK inherited his fortune from his deceased wife Tahira. And he’s recenly been embroiled in a scandal of misappropriation of funds. He is wanted by the Indian government for owing about ₹200 billion in taxes and fines. In 2023, that’s approximately $243.7 million in U.S. dollars.

Before AK’s birthday party ends, his body will be found at the bottom of a cliff. And all of the guests will become persons on interest in this investigation, which is led by a stern CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) agent named Mira Rao (played by Vidya Balan) who arrives on the scene from India. Mira shows up unannounced because she was there to extradite AK back to India to face charges of financial fraud and corruption. And now, she might have to file a homicide report. Some of the witnesses give contradicting statements about whether AK accidentally fell or if he was pushed over the cliff.

These are the guests and employees who are investigated for AK’s death:

Lisa Kapoor (played by Shahana Goswami), AK’s sweet-natured and sultry younger sister, is a bachelerette who has been living off of his money.
Sasha Mistry (played by Ishika Mehra) is an orphaned teenage distant relative of AK’s late wife. Lisa has been Sasha’s guardian since Sasha became an orphan.
Ryan Cooper (played by Shashank Arora), AK’s only child, is in his 30s. He’s arrogant, irresponsible and addicted to cocaine.
Gigi (played by Prajakta Koli) is Ryan’s “mysterious new girlfriend.” She doesn’t approve of Ryan’s drug taking and doesn’t partake in it.
Jamhad “Jimmy” Mistry (played by Rahul Bose) is the openly gay and flamboyant brother of AK’s late wife Tahira. Jimmy and Tahira ran the family business before she died. Jimmy is resentful that AK, not Jimmy, inherited the family fortune and family business.
Zara (played by Niki Walia, also known as Niki Aneja Walia) is AK’s “spiritual healer” whose best friend is her Jack Russell terrier dog named Rumi.
Kay Patel (played by Amrita Puri) is AK’s loyal personal assistant, who has accompanied AK from India.
Sanjay Suri (played by Neeraj Kabi) is a prominent and wealthy plastic surgeon who has known AK for years.
Noor Suri (played by Dipannita Sharma), Sanjay’s wife, is a famous actress and a glamorous London socialite.
Ishaan Suri (played by Madhav Deval), the son of Sanjay and Noor, is a nerdy film school student.

AK is a controversial public figure not only because of his financial misdeeds but also because it’s well known that he decided to lay off numerous employees of AK Aeronautics without taking a pay cut himself and continuing to have a lavish lifestyle. It’s been reported in the news that some of these former employees were so distraught about losing their jobs, they committed suicide. One of those suicidal employees was a 30-year-old named Devika Chellam, who was a rising star at the company.

Of course, a murder mystery with several characters will have the expected “bombshell” secrets that are eventually revealed. In “Neeyat,” all of the secrets are quite unimaginative and not very surprising. One of the most ludicrous aspects of this story is that CBI agent Mira Rao doesn’t call for backup right away when there might be a killer on the loose. She wants to solve everything on her own.

The mediocre-to-bad performances in “Neeyat” sometimes make it very difficult to watch this moronic movie, as it lumbers along from one “reveal” to the next. The final reveal is foreshadowed too soon, because a certain person’s name is mentioned enough times in the story that you can figure out that this character will be connected to the killer’s motive. An end-credits scene in “Neeyat” hints that CBI agent Rao is not as morally upstanding as she appears to be. With any luck, viewers will be spared from any more Mira Rao movies if these sequels are going to be as misguided as “Neeyat.”

FunAsia Films released “Neeyat” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on July 7, 2023.

March 30, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Zwigato”

Directed by Nandita Das

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Bhubaneswar, India, the dramatic film “Zwigato” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A husband and wife struggle financially with part-time “gig economy” jobs after the husband loses his full-time job as a factory manager.

Culture Audience: “Zwigato” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching “slice of life” dramas about working-class people.

Shahana Goswami in “Zwigato” (Photo courtesy of Viacom18 Studios)

Within the “slice of life” format of “Zwigato,” this drama takes an unflinching and critical look at “gig economy” jobs that can cross the line into worker exploitation. Don’t expect any absurd melodrama in this realistic but somewhat meandering movie. The acting performances are admirable, even if some parts of “Zwigato” get repetitive. “Zwigato” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Nandita Das (who co-wrote the “Zwigato” screenplay with Samir Patil), “Zwigato” is named after the food-delivery company that employs the movie’s male protagonist for most of the story. It’s a company that’s similar to Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash, where customers order food for delivery on an app. The food deliverers then get ratings from the customers. These ratings directly affect the salaries and employee evaluations for the food deliverers.

In the beginning of “Zwigato” (which takes place in Bhubaneswar, India), Manas Singh Mahto (played by Kapil Sharma) has lost his job as a manager of a factory. Manas and his wife Pratima (played by Shahana Goswami) live with their son Kartik (played by Parjwal Sahoo), their daughter Purim (played by Yuvika Brahma) and Manas’ elderly mother Mai (played by Shantilata Padhy), who has some health problems. Kartik is about 12 or 13, while Purim is about 10 or 11. As a factory manager, Manas made enough money to support his family, while Pratima was a homemaker. However, with the loss of his job, Manas and Pratima have to scramble to find work.

The only job that Manas can find at the moment is as a Zwigato delivery person. Meanwhile, Pratima finds part-time work as a masseuse (she has previous experience) and later as a cleaner at a shopping mall. “Zwigato” shows the trials and tribulations that each spouse has adjusting to their new jobs, although the vast majority of the scenes are focused on Manas. The money that the spouses make can barely pay their bills. And as their financial problems increase, so does the strain in their marriage.

Pratima starts off optimistic that her masseuse work will be a pleasant experience. She begins with wealthy people as clients. But over time, she finds out that some of these wealthy clients are very demanding and unreasonable. At one job where she has been hired to give a young woman a massage, Pratima has some transportation problems and has to rush to get there on time. When Pratima arrives, she is told by the woman’s mother that Pratima’s services are no longer needed. Privately, the spoiled young woman told her mother to fire Pratima because Pratima looked “too sweaty.”

Manas’ problems with Zwigato have to do with unreasonable customers too. But there’s also the company-wide issue of Zwigato making their delivery people pay their own costs for transportation. Manas and the majority of the employees use gas-powered vehicles. And the cost of gas can be up to 40% of their Zwigato salaries.

The movie shows how Zwigato offers the employees an enticing solution to the gas expense problem: At an employee meeting outdoors (with a guest appearance by actress Gul Panag, playing a version of herself), she introduces an electric motorbike that the company is offering to employees—for a price. The price is more than what the average individual Zwigato employee can afford. The movie shows how the employees, including Manas, overcome that challenge.

“Zwigato” doesn’t reveal anything new or surprising about the employee issues that come from “gig economy” work. The employees are often underpaid and overworked. And because they are considered “independent contractors” by their employers, these employees are not given employee benefits such as health insurance or pensions.

Manas feels the pressure and starts to question if working for Zwigato is worth the hassle and the stress. After he gets a false complaint from a customer, the low rating leads to Manas getting temporarily suspended, and he doesn’t get the support and fair treatment that he expects from the company’s management. When he meets with a Zwigato regional executive (played by Sayani Gupta) to ask for an investigation and to reinstate his good employee rating, she is dismissive and tells Manas that he should feel grateful that the company hired him because he can be replaced by many other people who want the job.

“Zwigato” doesn’t make any particular person a “hero” or a “villain,” but the movie repeatedly shows how people can get trapped and burned out in this type of work, which tends to have high turnover. They spend so much time doing these low-paying jobs that it often becomes difficult to have the time to find better-paying jobs. And they hang on to the “gig economy” jobs out of financial necessity or desperation, while the companies they work for get rich. “Zwigato” doesn’t offer any solutions to the age-old issues of the “haves” and the “have-nots,” but it does offer a well-depicted look at a family affected by “gig economy” work, which this family did not want but was forced to take in order to survive financially.

Viacom18 Studios released “Zwigato” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on March 17, 2023.

Tag: Shahana Goswami

Review: ‘Neeyat’ (2023), starring Vidya Balan, Ram Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Dipannita Sharma, Shashank Arora, Shahana Goswami, Neeraj Kabi and Amrita Puri

Review: ‘Zwigato,’ starring Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami