Review: Lootera

Review: Lootera

It is a good one. Very well made. Yes, you should watch it because such films are not made again and again. It is a tale of charm, love, trust, betrayal and hope, all set in the faraway days of the 1950s.

With Lootera, Vikramaditya Motwane delivers a masterpiece - almost. The story is great. With all the yesteryears movies about sone-ki-moorti and laakhon-ke-heere, this one shows a lootera in a different light- as a lover shattered in life, yet clinging on to hope - someone else's hope. The social setting is one of phenomenal change, an India being born. Motwane has brilliantly captured the sentiment of those times, and brought it to us who know nothing about then.  Ranvir Singh plays Varun Srivastava with honesty and well, more honesty. It is a character come alive. Sonakshi Sinha plays the quintessential Bengali woman - she is beautiful, passionate and fiery. She is also heartbroken and dying. Sonakshi has delivered a performance very different from her previous glamorous roles - she deserves applause. The other characters are played very well too. However, actors like Divya Dutta appear unused. You don’t put an actress like her in your movie, and dole out a few pathetic one liners to her. Even in the tiny screen space provided to her, Dutta makes herself seen.

The music is amazing. Beautiful lyrics, compositions and extremely well sung. Bhattacharya and Trivedi have delivered a gift to the music industry, because this is quality work. It blends beautifully into the whole setting and story.

A couple of things however do take the charm away. Pakhi knows Varun is injured but acts as if she doesn’t. why? Then again, he kills his friend. That is an important part of the story, but isn't given much importance. The second part is definitely O.Henry's story. But it just doesn’t strike so well. For those who have read "The Last Leaf", it may appear overdone, for those who haven't, it may be too subtle. And the way she discovers the leaf, that certainly could have been better. That is where the movie slips - it builds up to that moment beautifully - and then, nothing. She knows she has got life, and he is probably dying. He gets shot, she looks at the leaf with laughter but in that defining moment of life and death, the are apart. Nothing seems to join them - there is no closure to all the love and sacrifice. There is the hint of redemption though. The ending is why the movie is "almost" a masterpiece, not quite there.
The locales are refreshing and beautiful. However, there is sloppy camera work at some points. When Varun returns to Pakhi's house and walks in the snow, the whole thing seems to be hodge-podge screen work. As if it really was shot in the fifties.  

To summarize, it’s a must watch. Skip it only if you can't stand slow paced romances.