Film shoots may be slow and selective during this long lockdown period. But what is ripe and ready is a lockdown film! Yes, it’s time for Lockdown Poison which is a film written and directed by Raoul V Randolf, edited by Anil Ray and shot by Hrishikesh Jha. It is a fictional film or what could be termed as a classic documentary, all about a journey of recovery and self-discovery during the lockdown period, addressing the issues we have been facing like underlying spirituality, yoga, meditation and drugs.
Raoul, being a Goan, has made the film in the tiatr style of the land with healthy doses of song and dance and stand-up comedy, thus making it thoroughly enjoyable. And being a musical, it draws from Bollywood films down the ages including Amar Akbar Anthony featuring Amitabh Bachchan as Anthony Gonsalves.
The film has been shot in three fishing (koli) villages - one in Goa and the other two in Mumbai, in Versova and Vasai. The film features Father Joseph Pereira (Fr. Joe, the singing priest) as himself. Papa ‘Rocking’ Joe, as he is called by one of the characters in the film, sings ‘Impossible Dream’ among other songs. The film also starts Anangsha Biswas.
The film, dedicated by Raoul to his friend, the late Irrfan, is believed to show us how to convert a challenge like the lockdown into a positive knockdown.
