Lootera Review Thread -Critic Reviews pg26 onward - Page 49

• Posted in : Bollywood
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• July 5th, 2013.

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Vikramaditya Motwane's Lootera has opened to a decent response at the Indian box office. The film was never expected to open too well, but the occupancy is similar to last week's Raanjhanaa.

The other release this week, Sanjay Dutt's Policegiri, is a washout at multiplexes. Dutt's presence and its genre has helped the film open to a fair response at single screens.

The reports for Lootera is good. Critics have given the film a thumbs up too. It remains to be seen if the Ranveer Singh – Sonakshi Sinha starrer can pickup like Raanjhanaa did after a slow start on Friday morning.

1953, West Bengal: Varun Shrivastav (Ranveer Singh) enters the world of Manikpur's Zamindaar (Barun Chanda) as an archaeologist whose job is to excavate the area in search of an ancient civilization. But what he finds instead is something he didn't bargain for – a blossoming romance with Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha), the zamindaar's sheltered daughter, which threatens to capsize his life as he knows it.

From the first frame, it's clear that Lootera is a world of its own, whether because of the 1950s setting or just how well Mahendra J Shetty captures it. The film opens slowly, and unravels in a similar manner. Nothing about this story is rushed: conversations are carried out in slow whispers, the characters take all the time in the world to look at each other, and the music score unfolds languidly in the background. The downside is that, for many viewers, it will feel like nothing's really happening – and, indeed, the film does feel like it's dragging at a point. But at the same time, Lootera is not the kind of film that can be rushed, especially since so much of the beauty lies in the silence, the pauses, and the overlong glances – it's a film where action takes a backseat to relationships and characters.

And what characters they are, too! Varun appears to be quite the mystery, because – even till the very end – you feel like you don't know him completely. Sure, parts of his personality shine through, such as when he tenderly cares for Pakhi, or when he tells her that he doesn't know how to do anything except his current job. But for the most part, so much of his personal story remains unexplored, and while in some cases this can reek of insufficient character development, in Lootera it really works. You know he's a multi-layered character, but since Pakhi doesn't get the opportunity to uncover all those layers, neither do you – ensuring that he's a character you will be pondering even when you exit the theatre. Pakhi, on the other hand, is a more wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve type, a side-effect from leading the kind of life she does: pampered little girl who can wrangle anything (such as painting lessons) from her doting father. When she feels like she may not be getting what she wants from Varun, she doesn't back down, but instead demands a response from him and lets her feelings known.

If you had told me about these characters in the beginning and then asked who should be cast for them, I probably wouldn't have even thought of Ranveer and Sonakshi. Since one is known for being the loud, boisterous boy, and the other for her presence in hardcore masala films, surely no form of subtlety can be expected from them? But in this one, Ranveer and Sonakshi both prove that they can be a lot more than what they're known for. Ranveer delivers a remarkably restrained performance, and even though he looks stoic at times, it feels like a character trait more than anything else. Sonakshi, who manages to look lovely even with bags under her eyes, plays Pakhi delicately at first, and then more sternly later on. She shows that she shouldn't go back to playing second-fiddle to heroes in mindless entertainers.

And yes, the film is based on a short story by O' Henry. I had previously read the story so knew what to expect in the second half, but seeing Vikramaditya Motwane bring it to life on screen still left me teary-eyed. If you haven't read the story and are considering watching the movie, then my advice would be to hold off on that until you've seen it – but of course, come back and read The Last Leaf, because it deserves to be read.

VERDICT:

All in all, Lootera is not the kind of film you'd expect out of Bollywood. It thrives on subtlety and is in no hurry to go anywhere. If you don't like slower films, you'll perhaps find it worth your while to stay away. But if you want to see some stunning frames and the lead pair's best performances till date, then this one needs to be watched.

A beautiful woman, an oomphy con-man, a love story, beautiful locations – all this in the hands of a director whose debut film charmed everyone for its sensitivity and skillful storytelling. What could go wrong? As it turns out, a lot.

It isn't as though Lootera is without strengths. Director Vikramaditya Motwane's second film looks gorgeous. The sets, costumes and cinematography deserve high praise. Amit Trivedi's songs and background score is sumptuous and a clever mix of vintage and modern influences. The film has an able supporting cast in actors like Barun Chanda, Adil Hussain, Arif Zakaria and Divya Dutta, but the weight of Lootera rests upon its stars Sonakshi Sinha and Ranveer Singh, who play the lead pair of Pakhi and Varun.

Courtesy: Facebook

On paper, Pakhi would come across as a bit of a bimbo. The daughter of a wealthy Bengali zamindar, she's lived a pampered and sheltered existence. All she's expected to do is look pretty as she wafts around her palatial home. Even when misfortune strikes, the effect on Pakhi is to make her move out of her family mansion in Bengal and set up home in the family mansion in Dalhousie.

But Sinha's Pakhi is full of quicksilver charm and she lights up the screen as she channelsCharulata, watching the world from her window. Sinha is clearly capable of much more than the hollow pelvic-thrusting damsel that's been her lot for most of her filmography. She imbues Pakhi with an innocence and sensitivity that makes it easy to fall in love with her. Of course it helps that the script is on Pakhi's side, which is not a luxury that Singh's Varun enjoys.

Varun enters Pakhi's life when he comes to Pakhi's father's zamindari, requesting permission for an archaeological dig. He's good looking, knows poetry and is polite. Net result: Pakhi and her father are bowled over. However, Varun has ulterior motives – he's come to swindle Pakhi's father. When he starts flirting delicately with Pakhi – because that's how people flirted in the 1950s: delicately and with lots of pregnant pauses – his sidekick points out Varun is behaving irresponsibly and cruelly because when he leaves with Pakhi's family wealth, she will be heartbroken. Varun says he loves her, and it falls upon the audience to decide whether Varun is a criminal lootera or a tragic romantic hero straitjacketed by his circumstances.

Neither the script nor Singh's acting betray any detail about Varun's personality. The only thing we know about him is that he is a thief. Each time he reappears, it's because he's part of a con job. In the second half, his and Pakhi's paths don't cross because he looked for her or because he had given up the work that forced him to betray the supposed love of his life. He shows up because he's planning to loot another rich family and the police has laid out an elaborate trap to catch Varun and his gang.

The cornerstone of Bollywood's understanding of love is silence. People don't fall in love with qualities and personality traits, but because the object of their attention giggles for no ostensible reason and is good looking. Showing one's love invariably involves nursing, another largely silent activity. Considering how beautifully Motwane articulated the relationships in Udaan, it wasn't unreasonable to expect the central relationship in Looterawould be depicted convincingly. Unfortunately, in Lootera, the foundation of the love story is giggling and a rather lacklustre kiss.

By the end of the first half, Varun has broken Pakhi's heart, reduced her family to penury and effectively caused her father's death. It's difficult to believe she would ignore all this for the memory of his toothy grin and a few painting lessons.

Lootera fumbles as a love story and without this pivot, Pakhi and Varun's story wobbles awkwardly. For instance, you have to wonder how loving a relationship is when a woman learns the man she loves has been shot, but doesn't ask him anything about his injury. Varun's redemption is supposed to lie in the elements of the story taken from O Henry's short story, "The Last Leaf". However, Pakhi's identification with the tree is forced and it's difficult to tell if Varun's behaviour is motivated by guilt or true love.

Possibly because Lootera's pace slows down to make slugs seem like F1 drivers in the second half, Motwane injects melodrama into the last few minutes of the film, but this move backfires terribly. After all the restraint and delicacy that is Lootera's charm for most of the film, the sight of Varun hanging from a tree's branches like George of the Jungle is a letdown for fans of Ranveer Singh, Motwane and O' Henry.

Lootera is heartbreaking in many ways, but the most crushing is the realisation that the smartest filmmakers of Bollywood coming together – Motwane's long-time champion Anurag Kashyap wrote the dialogues and is one of the producers – doesn't necessarily make a good film. Worse, it can result in a film that begins with promise and ends up as flat-out boring.

http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/review-sonakshi-impresses-but-lootera-is-boring-928775.html