Get ready for some arresting, beautifully filmed images and songs that will melt your heart away.
Sonakshi Sinha has never been more charming and Ranveer Singh makes us fall in love with him all over again in Lootera.
Not only does the movie take place in 1953, it gives you the feeling you are watching a movie of that era. It flows easy and gently through the first half, a romantic lullaby. It picks up drama and temporarily pace, only to level out again. The last quarter is quiet and introspective. No great Dabanggs here. Inner turmoils. A tale of redemption, of love conquers all and makes wrongs right.
The movie is set in West Bengal and captures the essence of Bengali films. It reminded my of the quietness of deep mountain lakes. You jolt a stone and it will create gentle ripples on the surface whilst it cuts through the deep waters, never to touch bottom.
Sonakshi Sinha graces each frame with her quintessentially Indian beauty. She conjures images of goddesses. As if somebody rubbed an oil-lamp, releasing a genie. She is greeting you from old paintings of a bygone era. Sonaskhi is so beautiful you want to freeze time to keep her that way forever. I will always want to see her draped in colorful saris, not in skimpy Kareena outfits. The role of Pakhi was written for her. I was glad to hear that she quit her agent over the refusal to take part in “Welcome.” She is a character actress like Vidya Balan, a powerhouse, wasted on dumbed down movies. She should be weighing carefully her roles and remain true to herself.
Ranveer Singh plays his character Varun with depth and complexity. Not to say I was surprised. I loved his nonchalance, energy and charisma in Band Baaja Barat. This role as Varun,brings out a new side to him, the turmoiled, torn, emotionally charged. Ranveer reminded me of Ralph Fiennes in The English patient, when he opened the door of his room to Pakhi. Or Ruldolfo Valentino in The Sheik. I bet every woman’s heart stood still for a moment. This movie is heartbreakingly beautiful. I savored each minutet. Maybe it’s also the nostalgia of going back in time, before computers, before cell phones. A movie without the gadgets of our time felt so good all for sudden. Life seemed so different then.
If you want to spoil it for yourself, read all the reviews and storyline upfront. Or don’t ready anything about it and let the movie do its magic.
In a nutshell, a young archeologist, Varun Shrivastav (Ranveer Singh), comes with a friend to excavate a temple site situated on grounds of a local Zamindar. He gains his trust and confidence of the kind Zamindar’s , whose most valuable asset is his daughter Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha). Her feeble health is of great concern to him. From the first encounter Pakhi feels increasingly drawn to Varun and falls under his spell. He is not what he seems to be though and things take an ugly turn.
If you are a guy, who loves action movies, don’t watch this movie. If you suffer from attention deficit disorder, don’t watch this movie. If you haven’t slept in days, bring a comfort pillow.
It’s a good date movie, if you want to reach out to the woman of your dreams. You might get lucky.
Writer/director Vikramaditya Motwane is a filmmaker after my heart. He has shown his talent with Udaan and DevD. He has worked on Devdas (2002) as associate director, as the choreographer in Water (2005) and it must have inspired him. This movie is ripe with the tone and color of those two films, but Lootera is his masterwork.
I hope the movie makes it to the Oscar’s.
thebollywoodaddict 