The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly changed our daily lives, with the nationwide lockdown and containment across localities bringing some more blues with it. Even in the rural landscape, everything from doing regular chores to hanging out with friends has changed.
As the government in Telangana is strictly enforcing the lockdown and asking citizens to practise self-quarantine in their homes given the continuing threat of COVID-19, people are trying to adhere to it but things often turn out to be weird or funny.
My Village Show, a Telugu YouTube channel known for its ‘pakka local’ satirical content, seems to have taken the idea for their new episode from lockdown scenarios in the village backdrop.
‘Village lo Quarantine’, a nearly 14-minute video by the team, shows what almost everyone is doing every day in the lockdown. Six characters depict common scenes in a comic way.
A brief interaction between Anjimama and his son shows how over-caring parents discipline their kids on hygiene practices. Picking up a home disinfectant, Anjimama almost chemically sanitises his son while lecturing him about the dangers of COVID-19. He even tries to disinfect his son’s meal forcing him to stop eating and run away.
Anil Geela, whose character is named 'Pulihora Raja', is seen flirting with multiple women over the phone but gets a taste of his own medicine as he delivers a line that he hears from one woman to another. In return, he is given the same response that he had given to the first woman, suggesting that all youngsters are indulging in flirting with multiple people, looking for romance, as they are jobless at home due to the quarantine.
A bored Raju’s desperate efforts to pass the time and his calls to his friend Anil asking for his help also shows how being confined at home is difficult for many people.
There is also the over-confident Chandu who ignores his mother’s advice to stay at home and goes out on his new bike only to be caught by the police.
Shiva, who keeps himself busy in household chores, is mocked by his neighbour, a young girl, who is amused at his ‘strange’ actions. The conversation between them is quite hilarious, as the girl continuously peeps into his house and lectures him.
The video has gone viral in less than a week, garnering more than 10.5 lakh views. The makers shot the video on their mobiles from their respective homes following physical distancing. After the individual videos were shot, the files were sent for editing to Srikanth Sriram, the founder of My Village Show.
Anil, who is one of the main actors from the channel, said they wanted to create village scenes that have become common after the lockdown. “The idea was to show how people are holding up in quarantine despite difficulties and fears. Many village residents are relating it to themselves.”
The team felt it was appropriate to publish a video in the backdrop of the COVID-19 quarantine since they hadn’t produced any video in the last one month.
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