MUMBAI: The lockdown imposed in March 2020 brought life as we all knew to a hard stop but we carried on living. Cabin Fever, a collaboration between Mumbai-based Jugaad Motion Pictures, ‘Udd Gaye’ and ‘Barso’ singer and producer Ritviz and director Pranav Bhasin attempts to capture this ‘suspended living’ amidst lockdown in Mumbai.
Cabin Fever depicts the very relatable turmoil, inertia, madness and restlessness felt in a Corona-afflicted world cleverly through the mobile screen.
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The three-part miniseries that was launched on May 18 on Ritviz’s YouTube channel captures the emotional lives of two young people, Sanksriti and Jounty who in their own way endure the craziness of lockdown and everything it brought with it.
Cabin Fever Part 2 was put out in June, and finally on September 12, the concluding episode was released. The series has already racked up more than a million views on YouTube, and has received very encouraging reviews from the YouTube community.
You can watch the three-part series here: https://bit.ly/3hnMi5R
Cabin Fever is a story that takes place in the aftermath of the Coronavirus outbreak, amidst strict lockdowns in Mumbai, where an eccentric Jounty is trying to convince his girlfriend to flee with him to a remote village to escape the maddening boredom and his neurotic family. Something a generation of young people will attest to experiencing.
Arnav Bhasin bring to life the exuberance of Jounty while Sanskriti Shukla plays the realistic and reassuring foil to Jounty’s madcap thoughts.
“We couldn’t sit around waiting for the lockdown to lift. People are still living their lives; the human experience hasn’t stopped with the lockdown. If anything, it’s been more nuanced. We wanted to tell a story that reflected the zeitgeist, but also a story that we could execute while in quarantine,” says Dheer Momaya, founder Jugaad Motion Pictures, of the idea behind Cabin Fever.
The project is written and directed by Pranav Bhasin, another frequent collaborator of Jugaad.
Pranav is an up-and-coming director who specializes in stories entailing realistic drama and satirical humor. He first broke onto the scene with his acclaimed short mockumentary film “The Wolf of Chawl Street” which won the Silver Gateway at MAMI in 2017.
“People seemed to be heavily distressed at the beginning of the lockdown, and to have a character who would hack his way out of the system seemed like a fun idea— is what I thought as I sat staring at the ceiling,” Pranav explains how the idea of Cabin Fever came to him.
Considering that on-set shoots were off the table, Pranav and the team had to make do with what was possible – phone calls and phone cameras. “The shooting process was uniquely tailored for the conditions – I wouldn’t have the privilege of watching the takes as they happened. We would spend a lot more time discussing the narrative and these characters among us before shooting, because each take was continuous and substantially long. It was a fun, spontaneous and collaborative project to have spent the last few months on,” he adds.
The idea to collaborate with Ritviz, who has previously collaborated with Jugaad for his video ‘Sage’, ‘Liggi’ and most recently, the recent pride anthem for Tinder, was to create a hub that fosters arts and culture and serves as a platform to budding artists. Also, the decision to release Cabin Fever on Ritviz’s channel was in part due to his subscriber base being distinctly different, comprising of a unique demographic who are enthusiastic about new stories and keen to support younger artists.
For Ritviz, Cabin Fever marks his entry into more versatile forms of storytelling, other than music. “Telling stories has always been at the core of my music. It’s how I make sense of the world. Today, as my channel hits a million subscribers, I’m taking this opportunity to support newer forms of stories, beyond music,” Ritviz had announced on Instagram in May 2020.
Part 1 features Ritviz’s remix of Lauv’s ‘Modern loneliness’ and fans will be able to recognise Liggi playing in part 2 and ‘Thandi hawa’ and ‘Roshni’ in part 3.
