Banana Bread review: Simple film that has the pulse of life under lockdown

Do you think you are armed with all the facts and figures regarding COVID-19 and are making sensible decisions based on the surfeit of information? How long can you keep up with the rules and safety measures? How much are you craving human interaction and company? These are some of the questions that the latest short film from Terribly Tiny Tales pushes us to dwell on.

Starring Rasika Dugal and Mukul Chadda, Banana Bread has its finger on the pulse of people during the current COVID-19 crisis, where, stuck at home, many of us are yearning the most for social interaction, especially people living on their own.

When Shruti (Dugal) sees her new neighbour (Chadda) struggling with the lift, she generously offers to help him, as he has been unable to find potable water at the store, and invites him into her home. The process of giving him water becomes quite complicated with keeping the two-metre distance, but she reassures him, citing facts and figures. While he is unsure even about being in her home, she spouts the safety measures, like a self-appointed authority on it. And so, the first meeting results in watching Sherlock on Netflix, and spending time with each other.

Banana Bread is a snapshot of life under lockdown, a time when, perhaps, the most exciting thing about our mundane, routinized days is experimenting with recipes that give us some sense of purpose, like the said bread. An undemanding film, it weaves together people’s attitudes towards rules imposed during lockdown and how easily they get thrown out of the window at our convenience.

Written by Dugal and Chadha and directed by Srinivas Sunderrajan, Banana Bread is a simple story with some funny moments like the gobsmacked expression on Chadda’s face when Shruti asks him to come inside, and he responds, “Is it allowed?” The film highlights the desire of people to spend time together. The fact that they are, perhaps, as alike as chalk and cheese doesn’t quite matter. 

As the first images of people hugging each other through plastic sheets are being shared from across the world where the numbers of active COVID-19 cases have come down, the film reminds us that at the end of the day, we are only human. Watch Banana Bread: