Movie: Lootera
Director: Vikramaditya Motwane
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha, Barun Chanda, Vikrant Massey, Adil Hussain and Divya Dutta
Rating: ****1/2
Lootera comes from a guy who did his schooling at Sanjay Leela Bhansali public school and graduated from Anurag Kashyap University. Vikramaditya Motwane’s debut Udaan is based on the Anurag Kashyap’s life story. Udaan’s plot deals with a expelled teenage guy who has no choice in life than to stick with his tyrant father until he takes a giant leap in his life. Each and every one of us could relate to this movie, in some frame, especially the ones stayed in boarding schools and stayed away from home during their teen phase. It was selected to compete in Cannes under Un certain regard category and won a cult status globally. Udaan will leave you spellbound with a triumphant smile and simultaneously with an ecstatic tear and a heavy heart. His Lootera, a poignant period drama, does almost the same but on a different emotional note.
The film opens with a subtle, untold note which one could hum themselves as ‘Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a beautiful princess called Pakhi Roy Chaudhuri’. The story and premise of Lootera can be stripped down in two lines. After hearing a story about a prince whose life has been locked up inside a parrot, a diseased Zamindari girl believes that she will die on a day when a last leaf falls from a tree. Motwane juxtaposed a good old Indian mythological short story with O’Henry classic ‘The Last leaf’ and baked a whole delicious, saccharine flavored love story under the Bollywood mainstream grammar. He has proven that one can make a successful, sensible and a soulful story without the mainstream clichés and compromise.
Amit Trivedi has composed, sorry, crowd sourced some of the best tones, orchestra & OST from Hollywood and world music. We definitely owe this guy big for bringing in the best world sounds, Indianize few and sync it perfectly. The main theme of Lootera has been ripped from One day’s theme by Rachel Portman and you can also hear Hans Zimmer’s Time from Inception in a long run before the Intermission. But apart from few rip-offs he has composed few original scores too. Music will make you to linger around the spectacular aura on-screen, captured flawlessly by Mahendra shetty. It will be a treat, for all those who drool and jaw drop for dim lighting yellow, groovy gray and blusih black frames with gorgeous lightings.
All the characters have justified their roles perfectly. Even the ones with limited screen space won’t make you to forget them. It was a great transformation to see Sonakshi Sinha on-screen after all the brainless, sultry skin show roles that she had done right from Dabangg. She sizzles and sets the screen on fire not with her flesh but with her elegant grace and looks dashingly beautiful in a traditional Saree. From sex siren, item number dancer to an artistic performer, she made quite a great leap and Ranveer Singh is equally good, matching her charisma, paring up with her and rendering an adorable and heartwarming on-screen romance and chemistry.
Lootera is well crafted, passionately sculptured, aesthetically cam-captured, soulfully acted. Like a fairy tale romance, one can witness the magic of pure love story on-screen after ages. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen an Indian romance, period drama which is as genuine and as good as Lootera. Not in the recent years at least.
Motwane elevates and transcends you into a whole different era in the first half, immerses you in an ocean of heart wrenching, melancholic emotions in the second half and finally sweeps you off completely in the climax. Amongst the big family tree domination in Bollywood industry, Motwane stands tall, stiff, solo and firm as a masterpiece ‘Last leaf’ amongst Kashyap’s kitties.
Opening the frame with a small, glowing, hot fire flame and closing it with sad, sorrowful snow at the end, Motwane casted his magic spell throughout the film. Lootera is an original piece art and Motwane, you’re a magician.