Unpaused-Cedar Herald Index

Unpaused is an Indian Hindi-language anthology film consisting of five short segments directed by Raj & DK, Nitya Mehra, Nikkhil Advani, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Avinash Arun. With an ensemble cast, the stories revolved around lives of people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It premiered on 18 December 2020 on Amazon Prime Video.

Cast

Glitch (Raj & DK) Gulshan Devaiah as Ahan Awasthi Saiyami Kher as Ayesha Hussain Apartment (Nikkhil Advani) Richa Chadda as Devika Khanna Ishwak Singh as Chirag Sumeet Vyas as Sahil Khanna Rat A Tat (Tannishtha Chatterjee) Rinku Rajguru as Priyanka Lillete Dubey as Archna Vishaanu (Avinash Arun) Abhishek Banerjee as Manish Geetika Vidya Ohlyan as Seema Chaand Mubarak (Nitya Mehra) Ratna Pathak Shah as Uma Shardul Bharadwaj as Rafique (Auto Driver)

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Critical reception

Debasree Purkayastha of The Hindu mentioned that the film has "a stirring ensemble of slice-of-life tales that dwell on the common themes of loneliness, love and hope." Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV wrote: "As a freewheeling rumination on loneliness, distress and lingering hope, the anthology, buoyed by a slew of terrific performances, is a pertinent commentary on a pandemic and its depredations."

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Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in praised the performances in the film but was critical of the treatment. Writing for The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta noted that the film mixes different themes like loneliness and isolation "with news that has made headlines in this terrible virus-laden year, with average results." Anna M. M. Vetticad wrote: "Unpaused is important because it serves to chronicle this slice of history. It helps that it is also an enjoyable, insightful affair."

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Soundtrack

The music was composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Payal Dev, Parth Parekh, Shishir A Samant and Gaurav Kadu with lyrics written by Rashmi Virag, Kunaal Vermaa, Ginny Diwan, Traditional and Gaurav Kadu.