Cargo movie review: A movie by Arati Kadav

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Set in the near future the year is 2027, and according to the movie a peace treaty was signed between humans and rakshasas which has enabled big leaps not just for humanity and rakshasanity but also for science.

Plot

In this Cargo movie Interplanetary space organizations exist, post-death transition services exist and when people die they are beamed up to spaceships as cargo their bodies are healed,  memories are wiped clean and then they are sent back to earth for punar janam. So even though all this seems futuristic sci-fi but it is as Sarkari (governmental) as they come the whole setup is like security check-in at an airport very procedure mundane machines are malfunctioning people have been stuck doing their same jobs for years. The thought of bringing in new people with fresh ideas is met with resistance on the spaceship helping people transition is rakshas astronaut agent Prahastha who has been at it for 75 years. He is joined by a young agent Yuvishka there and when that happens things begin to change which is what the movie is.

Is Cargo movie a copy?

Writer-director Arati Kadav must be a mad fun person to hang out with one can tell just by the sheer conviction with which she's created this audaciously, original and bizarre universe. Her characters exist in the kind of like Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy is a trilogy in four parts about the red-tapism and bureaucratic mess engulfing space travel and life on other planets. Those books aren't set in the future either, he just takes bizarre things which are happening on earth like politics, organized religion, sporting events, dating, wars. He sets them all in space adding silly embellishments like a guidebook for the entire galaxy, the importance of having your own tower, a supercomputer, a SEP field which stands for someone else's problem when you apply a SEP to something people ignore it and walk away.

So I don't know how much Arati Kadav's Cargo movie is inspired by Douglas Adams if at all but cargo too has flashes of cheeky but extremely poignant takes on human behavior like that Prahastha the character Vikrant Massey plays, In Hindu mythology, this name comes from the leader of Ravan's army against Ram in this film, there's also a character named Ram Chandra, a popular reality tv show host who claims to solve all your loneliness troubles by moving into your house eating your food and literally invading your life. The spaceships are called Pushpaks which as everyone knows was Ravan's flying aircraft. Prahastha's handler played by Nandu Madhav is named Nithikya literally translating to the knower of policies.

There are so many deeply insightful, little little details just scattered across cargo movie used for comedic effect. For all in rakshas lok at the time of puberty, everyone develops unique power (the knower of policy has the power to vanish but only a little over 86 part of him is still visible to everyone, one man's power is his inability to sleep and not be tired so he is the night handler of the ship's group).

Critical Analysis

Shweta Tripathi's character astronaut Yuvishka is an empathetic kind deeply emotional person with her powers she's able to heal people. Literally, Arati Kadav developed this universe filled with easter eggs which will give you a great experience I'm sure every number every bit of design in this film has significance and meaning guest appearances. Despite all her friends coming together to make her film happen Arati Kadav I believe is fully aware that doesn't translate to a big production budget hence futuristic tech finds no place in her film it is a very old tiny 80s tv show set with flickering bulging convex screens knobs clunky manual devices giving the landscape. A silly stage play feels clearly not caring about the form more than they need to have said that. I found the substance a tiny bit lacking as well sure the whole thing is a satire on how we lead our lives right now. The near-future setting gives you just enough perspective to reflect on current times but when it came to the central conflict of the story I felt a lack of conviction, what happens that a slightly jarring event occurs and within the same scene Yuvishka just declares that her healing powers are gone at which point the film turns from weird but hilarious to weird and sappy.

Views about the acting

 

Shweta Tripathi as Yuvishka while an endearing presence on-screen she didn't make room in my heart. For me to be invested in her character arc and root for her to win.

Same for Vikrant Massey who has maximum screen time apart from the name there is nothing very interesting or novel about his character Prahasta. It's fun to see him interact with the bits and pieces put together by Mayur Sharma's production design but the attempt to give him a personality fall short.

Final words on the Cargo

In one scene Yuvishka asks "Kisi bhi cheez ka kya mtlb hain?" this existential question is the sensibility of the film. The outdated toy like tech included nothing means anything but still, Arati Kadav has envisioned a future in the hope. It's not very far away and doesn't need very modern tech or advances in science, smartphones work on a spaceship which is prepared by what look like giant fuel efficient rubber pumps, the earth has laws against gender discrimination, we are using science against a generational andhviswas.

Cargo movie is a small but stupendous flight of fancy brought to fruition and that's why absolutely must watch share and encourage this film as much as possible catch it on Netflix to get away from the world for a bit fun very much intended so on a scale of one to ten cargo is 6.6. 

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