Lords of Lockdown

Anxious, out of work and without access to transport during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, migrant labourers in India’s metropolises decided to walk back home to their villages en masse. As news channels beamed heart-rending silhouettes of millions of men, women and children marching along national highways with their meagre belongings, it became plain that the lockdown had already drafted one of the most traumatic chapters in the nation's modern history.

Mihir Fadnavis’s resourceful documentary trains its attention on this tragic phenomenon that made apparent the invisible labour sustaining Indian cities and households. The film follows the efforts of NGOs and middle-class volunteer groups in providing food and healthcare to workers stranded in slums or adrift on highways. The prevalence of these civic initiatives, enabled by donations but also by social-media amplification, stands in stark contrast to the negligence and short-sightedness of state actors.

Through interviews on the ground, Lords of Lockdown gives voice to the frustrations of helpless workers, who call out the government’s failure in formulating a relief plan for them. The film cogently demonstrates that, far from being a great leveller, the pandemic has only deepened the existing iniquities of our world.

– Srikanth Srinivasan