Somehow balancing 20 boxes of pizza on the front of his motorbike, the delivery worker of an online app goes to an apartment building and takes the stairs, noticing he is not allowed to use the lift. Inside the apartment, he finds an inebriated man on the couch, ready to get sick. Two others begin chiding the delivery worker for bringing 20 boxes, without acknowledging the mistake that they made while ordering, and make fun of his concern for their drunken friend. The delivery worker walks away, refusing the condescending offer of a “few boxes for his kids”, leaving a few currency notes on the table like a tip for the customer.

This is not exactly the heroic moment in Zwigato, the Hindi film by actor-filmmaker Nandita Das, which was screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). But the viewer, who has by then seen the hard deals that Manas, the delivery worker, has been through, would heave a sigh of relief. Even though it does not make up for all the humiliation that he endures day in and day out, it is still something. Yet, the price he has to pay for his little reaction is huge. The sad truth is that this is no cinematic exaggeration. Reports on the real life struggles of delivery workers of online apps say worse stories.

In an interview with TNM, Nandita says that she came across several such shocking instances as she delved deeper into the subject. “In fact, I chose not to include extreme incidents as they may be seen as exceptions and thereby alienate the audience,” she says, adding that she chose to look at the small indignations instead, like the “‘the slow loss of dignity that people experience and how blind sometimes we are to them.”

Nandita Das

This is something that strikes you when you watch the movie that is set in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. Even when you feel angered by the casual indifference of the people towards the delivery worker, you know that this is very real. You probably know or have seen someone do that. Kapil Sharma plays the unfortunate Manas who is coming to terms with the job he took on after losing his job as a factory manager. Shahana Goswami, who plays his wife Pratima, does a wonderful job absorbing the tensions in running a cash-strapped home, convincing the patriarchal Manas of her need to work. The two child actors playing the couple's children, especially the girl, are also wonderful performers. Nandita has given a lot of thought to each character, including the old mother who breaks down when she can’t control her bathroom needs.

“I enjoy writing female characters, however big or small their parts may be. Shahana’s character and her relationship with the Kapil’s protagonist are very central to the story. Very few films give us a peek into ordinary lives, especially those of urban workers, these days. Their stories are vanishing from our collective narrative, even though they are an inevitable part of our world,” Nandita says.

You have to remember this, when, perhaps fuelled by a sense of gender equality, you question Pratima’s submission. Nandita doesn’t take the high road and make angels out of her struggling characters. “My protagonists are always flawed, just like we all are. After all, the hero is also conditioned by the patriarchal system and therefore those prejudices would surface in his interactions with his wife, despite their relationship being strong,” the director says.

You learn to appreciate Pratima’s silence when she is told not to work, as she, in her own ways, tackles the situation. This is, for her, not a question of asserting rights, but one of keeping her family fed. She is not the type to confront her husband about losing his job, but takes the most practical decision. He too is not unreasonable, just a little set in his ways, but obvious with his love for the family. When the son accompanies him and makes a blunder, he brushes it off with a joke about having to sell his motorbike. When the daughter is ashamed that her father delivered food to her principal’s house, he calms her down. It is a family you will fall in love with.

Shahana in Zwigato

This is the renowned actor’s third directorial venture, after Firaaq and Manto. "While working on the script, I realised how much of the particulars and peculiarities of our current moment can be revealed by simply following the life of a food delivery person for four days. After all, nothing exists in silos and to be able to be true to a context, one has to bring in those threads that create the world authentically,” Nandita says.

Watching the film, you realise there is so much you don't think about. A Muslim delivery person standing outside a temple is worried about going to the side of the temple pond where his customers are. It can be really dangerous these days, he tells Manas, as he asks him to go instead. Nandita has clearly done her research, evident in the nuances of the story – the minimum 10 deliveries that workers need to make to earn an incentive, without which the pay is meagre, the complaints of the workers going unheard, while even a small comment by a client can cost them their job.

“Before starting the film, I understood the world of incentives and algorithms as little as my protagonist did! The research process for this film took about two years. We gathered facts as well as personal stories by interviewing many riders. Their struggles, dilemmas, fears, and aspirations helped me understand their world closely. We also spoke to ex-employees of food delivery companies and in confidence, also with senior managers in analytics departments of food delivery apps,” Nandita says. The real challenge was in translating all this statistical information to tell a human story, she adds.

The idea behind the film formed out of a discussion about growing unemployment and the complexity of gig work with her publisher friend Samir Patil, she says. “Initially, I felt the subject would not immerse me enough, but as I began to delve deeper into it, I was drawn to the human aspects of this collision of new technology and the life of the workers, who are just a cog in the wheel. With the rise of the gig economy, the struggle between man and machine that Chaplin depicted in Modern Times has now shifted to one between man and algorithms. So Zwigato is a story about the relentlessness of life, but not without its silver linings.”

She says that people have told her how they have started to notice food delivery workers more after watching the film. “This in itself will make a difference in humanising our interactions with one another,” Nandita says.