Lootera Hindi Movie Review

Vikramaditya Motwani after taking flight with Udaan comes up with yet another interesting essay. Told in a style that may not gel very easily with the contemporary film goer, it is stuff to be relished. In fact it was disheartening to notice the loss of sensitivity in an audience that came to watch a film that is told with great craftsmanship and with oozing honesty and an effort that is surely laudable.
To a world absorbed in reality, the film maker sells a mirage and deals with emotions that chase an illusion. Ina time wrap when film makers attract the metro multiplex audience with quick fast paced tales here is one that stretches in an idyllic world, slowly. Motwani gives you a O Henry meets Nagesh Kuknoor kind of film. Do not miss this if you are the one who likes to take cinema seriously. Imagine an ideal whodunit with a O Henry sensitivity!! Possible? Not just, but absorbingly.
The Zamindari system is being abolished in Bengal. The aging feudal lord refuses to reading the writing on the wall and even the warning doled out by his staff. Living in a palatial bungalow he refuses to come to terms. He is singularly obsessed about the wellbeing of his ailing daughter Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha) who is suffering a bronchial ailment. Into their lives walk two young guys – Varun (Ranveer Singh) an archaeologist of sorts and his buddy Devdas (Vikrant Massey – a Dev Anand fan). They seek permission to excavate the area near the Zamindar’s personal temple stating that there is a civilizational probe underway.
Before long, Paakhi is attracted to Varun. Varun responds in his own way, sometimes enthusiastically other times, hesitantly. However all is fine when the elder patriarch agrees for the wedding and fixes the engagement. A dealer in antiques Vajpayee (Arif Zakaria) comes in to buy pieces of antiques from the Zamindar. The film takes a break with the two guys sneaking off from the bungalow on the eve of the event leaving the rest shattered.
The narration shifts from Manikpur to Dalhousie. Varun has walked out of the life of Pakhi, her father is dead and she living with some domestic help and coming to terms with her past and her ailment. Her desperate attempts to pick up her passion to writing does not take off and she also lets her home on rent for tourists. Cocooned in her own little world, the peace of her ostrich existence is disturbed when the local police (Adil Hussain) knocks at her door with the intent of knowing more about Varun and Vajpayee but end up telling her more than she knew. Further shattered she is resigned to the inevitable knock of death and believes that she will live only till the last leaf on the tree outside her window sheds its last leaf (O Henry’s: The Last Leaf). To state anything further would be a foolish attempt to give a ppep into the style and story that unfurls.
The film is also backed up by some powerful crew support. Fine cinematography (Mahendra J. Shetty) and brilliant soul string music (Amit Trivedi) add to the quality of the film. The later is SD Burmanesque. Some where down the line a feeling creeps in that perhaps, just perhaps more mature artists would have the film up a little more. Yet it must be said to the credit of Ranveer and Sonakshi put in their very best. Perhaps Ranveer is a trifle lost early one but he delivers the punch in the final moments of the film. It is refreshing to see Sonakshi exist out of her commercial world. One Lootera erases her many earlier outings. She announces that with a proper script and a good Director it is worth investing on her. This is finally a Director’s film.. If you are not the patient film watcher stay way. If you like good cinema grab it.