Thoughts on Lootera

 I read O'Henry's The Last Leaf while in school approximately 20 years ago. It's perhaps amongst his most poignant short stories laced with his trademark witty narrative and twist ending. For a recently turned teenager, it packed a quite a  punch and had me reaching for the tissues as I relived the end long after reading the story. Vikramaditya Motwane's latest --Lootera takes Jonsy and Mr.Behrman from the O'Henry story and gives them a past- a rather tumultuous one at that. 

Lootera [Robber] as the film's title and the promos suggest would seem like it is about it's titular-flawed protagonist. But that's misleading...the movie's essentially about the female lead [played endearingly well by the gorgeous Sonakshi Sinha]. Everyone else in the movie is secondary and revolve around the irresistibly charming, hopelessly romantic but incredibly feisty Pakhi Roychoudhury. 

The film invokes the era it's story is based in --the 1950s beautifully without  ever having to resort to over the top motifs or dramatisations. So we have songs from Dev Anand's Baazi playing on the radio and Pakhi's  Zamindar father being handed over a copy of the newspaper by his man-friday that says "End of Zamindari System". The first half of the film which is about falling in love--is fittingly set in lush green, sunny Manikpur of West Bengal. The film's latter half which is about death, loss, betrayal and solitude is set equally fittingly in a grey,wintry Dalhousie. The contrast couldn't be starker. And here's where you learn Pakhi's still attempting to be that writer she wanted to be but her medical condition which has grown to be more serious from the first half is slowly gnawing away at her life. Her father has passed on and all she has is an attendant who comes in maintains her house cooks for her and goes away. 

I sensed how the film would end a little into the second half--having had the benefit of reading the source material  a long time ago. I was still pleasantly surprised at the way it turned out. Motwane employs Amit Trivedi's spectacular soundtrack with Amitabh Bhattacharya's killer lyrics to haunting effect. The end plays out to the affecting "Zinda Hoon" crooned rather soothingly by Amit Trivedi himself.  "Kabr par meri sar uthake khadi ho zindagi...aise marna hain mujhe" a line in the song symbolises what Lootera is essentially about--a tale of love, betrayal and finally redemption. 

In Udaan we saw Motwane as the storyteller as he wove a wonderful story about a boy in pursuit of his dreams. In Lootera, Motwane becomes the complete artist--one who can paint with confident brush strokes.

I always wondered why Anurag Kashyap's production house [Phantom] wouldn't touch love stories with a barge pole. But when they do it stands out like a glittering gem in their portfolio. Really, Lootera is perhaps what every love-story aspires to be--bitter, sweet, not perfect but engaging enough to leave a lasting impact. Arguably one of the best romance movies ever made in India. I was completely riveted.