moments in Vikramaditya Motwane's Lootera. Some are part of scenes in
which not much is happening. Take this
one: The film's protagonists, Pakhi
(Sonakshi Sinha) and Varun (Ranveer Singh) are sitting by a tranquil
lake. They are in a fictional hamlet in Bengal named
Manikpur, where Varun is a visiting
archaeologist, a guest of Pakhi's father,
the local zamindar. There are silences
and whispers in their conversation. Faint
croaking sounds scatter the air. There is no romance between them, only its
promise. Even without great dialogues,
this scene has a life of its own.
Motwane's aesthetic in this film is
similar to that of his first film Udaan
(2010)—only more robust and more
evolved. Lootera is a celebration of what
is possible with the 35-mm film camera.
Lacking in all manner of cosmetic, post- production finesse, its
frames are richly
textured and thick. Motwane and his
cinematographer Mahendra Shetty have achieved a film purist's ultimate dream.
The technical flourishes are a foil for the
narrative economy, which tethers in the
end, but this offsetting defines most of
the film. The editing is sharp, lighting
and cinematography are breathtakingly
beautiful without ever seeming odd or out of place in the story or the setting,
sound design and montages propel the
story forward and the art direction is
painstakingly detailed. The background
music, although brilliantly used, becomes
punctuative in the second half. Almost every scene has background music.
Scored byAmit Trivedi, with lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya, the music
is an eclectic accent on the artistic scheme of
the film.
It is divided into two distinct visual
templates—a warm-hued first hour, with
heavily designed lighting, in which there
are grainy night frames, and a cold,
tungsten kind of second half leading to
the end. Both complement the way Pakhi's life is—the contrast in light is the
contrast between her life in Manikpur
which is full of possibilities and her
solitary life in the hill station Dalhousie
where she is sickeningly aware that her
life has dribbled off her hands. The gorgeous, expansive setting of the hilly
town, set mostly in winter, is an effective
setting for grief.
The story has a simple graph. It is the
1950s; songs from Dev Anand's films play in the radio and the impersonations
of the star appear in conversations
between young men. As her zamindar
father's fortunes ebb, Pakhi falls
passionately in love with Varun, only to
discover the truth about him. Her life falls into pieces. Later we meet her at
her father's estate in Dalhousie, which,
in the past she considered a sanctuary to
endlessly write. Now she is alone and
uninspired, faltering to make another
start. Varun comes to Dalhousie in pursuit of something else, and their fate
seem to be joined in a tense and
tormenting build-up to the end.
Motwane's story is partly derived from O
Henry's famous short story The Last Leaf.
Through Pakhi, Motwane (he is also the
screenplay writer) compassionately
scrutinizes the quiet desperation of a
woman of Pakhi's milieu and time. Even
in her Manikpur palace, Pakhi keeps the
company of a woman she has disdain for. Schooled in Shantiniketan, and
the basics
of landscape painting, she teaches Varun
how to paint. Writing fiction is her way
of reconciling her real world with the
alternative, secret existences she
imagines for herself. In the end, when she struggles to write, her wreckage is
complete. Sinha is a revelation in
Motwane's direction. As a terrified soul,
with flashes of panic and humaneness
fleeting in her eyes, Sinha has delivered
an outstandingly mature performance. She is the soulful centre of the film,
inhabiting the character completely. Even
in the transformed Pakhi, we can see
glimpses of her old self.
Singh is less effective as a man who is
torn between a calling and love. Even at
the peak of this romance, there is little
chemistry between Pakhi and Varun
largely because Singh's performance has
an unintentional stiltedness. Throughout the film, except for a few redeeming
moments towards the end, he seems
disconnected to the character.
Performances by Adil Hussain and Divya Dutta in lesser roles leave an
impression and Barun Chanda as Pakhi's father is convincing.
My only reservations with the film are the
narrative excess in the climax including a
tacky flashback, sorely at odds with the
tone of the film until that point.
Dialogues byAnurag Kashyap are not his best work; some dialogues sounded
utterly false on the characters.
It may be a couple of notches short of a
masterpiece, but Lootera is the kind of
film you will remember long after
watching it. Don't miss it.
Rating- 3/5
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