Windows Production House's Lockdown short Rupkotha salutes health-care workers

Rupkotha, the second short film from the Lockdown series of Windows Production House, features actor Biswanath Basu and his family. The film has been conceptualized by director duo Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy while the music has been composed by Prabuddha Banerjee.

In the film, Basu features as a health-care worker fighting against the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus disease) pandemic. The film begins with a doctor promising on television to fight the disease that has spread around the world.

Basu, before entering his house, makes sure his isolation room has been sanitized properly. His children are forbidden from entering the room. The film minutely records his daily routine of taking care of personal hygiene and that of everyone else in his family, while he spends his time at home quarantined.

As he reaches his bed, alone at night, with his kids and wife sleeping in another room, he gets a call from them. The boys ask him to finish the story that he had started telling them the previous night.

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Basu then continues the story of a prince who is fighting a demon aided by two evil spirits called Corona and Virus. The prince has asked the people of his state to stay indoors so that the demon does not gobble them up before ‘Jotila Buri’, an archetypal character from Bengali fairy tales, prepares a potion to destroy him. He finishes the story soon as his kids have to attend their online classes next morning.

The next morning, as he is about to leave for work, his kids send him a message on a paper plane, peeking through the door of their room, saying they know who the prince is and they love him.

The film has been shot well by Basu’s family and does not look like an amateur production. Basu’s serious demeanour suggests the grave situation that all families with members in the health-care profession are in currently. However, the film ends on a positive note, with the messages sent by his sons.