I must admit, in the search of some cheesy derogatory lines I might end up annoying you, flip side is you might end up hating this review more than the movie itself.
Nevertheless, Lootera is a big blunder of a movie, I don’t understand why people are calling it a masterpiece or a poem which Mr. Motwane has weaved into a romantic period film, it can hardly pass for a telefilm, I remember watching such short films on Doordarshan in my growing up days and they were so tastefully made that they left a distinct image in my head, those films were technically challenged but had such good attention to details in acting, dialogs, makeups, sets, etc and were a conscious attempt at no-bullshit-pure-drama chain of thought but with Lootera, sadly enough, I could not find the same amount if ingenuity, honesty and the no-nonsense attitude which had put Vikramaditya Motwane on the map with his first film Udaan.
Lootera is an amateur’s movie in so many ways, like no attention to details- you can’t make the audience feel the period in a period film just by throwing some rustic furniture around or dressing up the characters in old fashioned clothes or your lead actress in Saris and braided hair, you need to build upto it, you need to show the small things, like how certain words were pronounced in those days, how would a young girl with her zamindar-clad panache, in her high headedness falls for a chocolaty guy dresses up differently, says things differently, goofs up and still be elegant just to get his attention, all of this was made too easy in the film thus making it unbelievable, less classy and more cheesy. A lot depends on the actors too, Sonakshi Sinha is one fine find for the film industry and can be used in almost any movie, period or no period, as a boulder and that’s it, she is more of a Rowdy Rathore, Son of Sardar kind of an actor, NOT SUITED for intense acting, has a fat face and a big head which scares you when it is the only thing visible on the big screen (one more flaw in Lootera, in the attempt to capture the fine expressions the cameraman zoomed too close to the faces and then the camera got stuck, so a lot of times you find yourself staring at a gigantic face sans makeup, sans expression, very puffy (read pudgy) and a crass voice with the after tones of cuteness not of maturity or of pain and with no focus on pronunciation).
The director wasted some really good actors in this film, like the Zamindar, a fine actor I’d say , was used only as a prop, why could the director not show his pain and agony after the con, he was a Royal after all, his ego was supreme to him and he was robbed of it, he should have been vengeful, vile like Ronit Roy was in Udaan, but what did he do, he slunk into a chair and passed out after a drink or two, was taken as dead and might have been burnt alive, may his soul rest in peace!! too much symbolism for me to digest. Then we have Divya Dutta, only a fool would take an actor of her caliber and have her cut bhindis (and what was painted nail tips and manicured hands doing in a film set in the 50s, so much for the small things!) what a waste. Mr. Singh (the cop) although he was given a lot more screen space and dialog but he was the only bit of good acting in the film so you are left wanting to see more of him. Hero’s side kick (Vikrant Massey) did a good job, had better dialogs and looked like he belonged to that forgone era but again was wasted in the directors failed attempt to create shock by killing him abruptly.
Ranveer Singh was placid with glimpses of an actor in him, he looked good and that’s pretty much all that he achieved in the film, he should really work on his diction, I ended up missing out half of the things he said in the in-numerous whispers throughout the film, again the same flaw here too, the film, the actors, the backdrop, all set in the 50s but the dialogs and the way they are spoken was very contemporary (read: tacky). The film is dreadfully slow, sonakshi takes an eternity to say things maybe she has too much fat on her cheek bones which slows down the jaw movement or something, the film just refuses to move on. The graphics were dreadful, like some roadside multimedia center had done them (nice way to some budget cut), lot of snow but no smoky breaths, antiques in the zamindar’s collection, all close to 200 year old but none rusty or eroded, the chalice which the East India company gave him looked like had been used for a drink only recently, the dreadful Chachaji who is the leader of the brigands was not evil enough, poor chap didn’t even had sufficient dialogs to show is devilry, you would crave for someone like Jagatpal (played by the legendary Ajit ) in Ram Balram whereas you got a good for nothing suited up scarecrow with a 2 min scene.
But the biggest blunder of the film was the stupid, fat trunked, balding tree in the guest house courtyard and its existence to bring reference to The Last Leaf by O. Henry, most depressing and least meaningful, an absolute joke of an adaptation of a classic short story (dear old Oliver Henry must have looked the other way in his grave), I think the tree was colored by the same makeup artist who did the actors, it was awful.
The good things – very few and far in between, but the chase sequence was decent, could have been better, more edgier, but can be passed for as good stuff, side kick’s chase was more drawing than ranveer’s; the final emotional confrontation between ranveer and sonakshi was good, the only reason I can say this for sure is because in the whole movie that was the only time I was not irritated with sonakshi’s big head; and the music, aah the music what fine job, absolutely mesmerizing, I am thankful to Mr. Motwane for not keeping any song in the film, the actor’s desperate attempt at lip-syncing the beautiful melodies would have been the final nail in the coffin, but…we were spared of the pain, all songs are background, you can close your eyes, ignore the film and enjoy the exclusive Amit Trivedi!! Go watch it at your own peril, I’d recommend watching Despicable Me 2 instead!
- NB
Nevertheless, Lootera is a big blunder of a movie, I don’t understand why people are calling it a masterpiece or a poem which Mr. Motwane has weaved into a romantic period film, it can hardly pass for a telefilm, I remember watching such short films on Doordarshan in my growing up days and they were so tastefully made that they left a distinct image in my head, those films were technically challenged but had such good attention to details in acting, dialogs, makeups, sets, etc and were a conscious attempt at no-bullshit-pure-drama chain of thought but with Lootera, sadly enough, I could not find the same amount if ingenuity, honesty and the no-nonsense attitude which had put Vikramaditya Motwane on the map with his first film Udaan.
Lootera is an amateur’s movie in so many ways, like no attention to details- you can’t make the audience feel the period in a period film just by throwing some rustic furniture around or dressing up the characters in old fashioned clothes or your lead actress in Saris and braided hair, you need to build upto it, you need to show the small things, like how certain words were pronounced in those days, how would a young girl with her zamindar-clad panache, in her high headedness falls for a chocolaty guy dresses up differently, says things differently, goofs up and still be elegant just to get his attention, all of this was made too easy in the film thus making it unbelievable, less classy and more cheesy. A lot depends on the actors too, Sonakshi Sinha is one fine find for the film industry and can be used in almost any movie, period or no period, as a boulder and that’s it, she is more of a Rowdy Rathore, Son of Sardar kind of an actor, NOT SUITED for intense acting, has a fat face and a big head which scares you when it is the only thing visible on the big screen (one more flaw in Lootera, in the attempt to capture the fine expressions the cameraman zoomed too close to the faces and then the camera got stuck, so a lot of times you find yourself staring at a gigantic face sans makeup, sans expression, very puffy (read pudgy) and a crass voice with the after tones of cuteness not of maturity or of pain and with no focus on pronunciation).
The director wasted some really good actors in this film, like the Zamindar, a fine actor I’d say , was used only as a prop, why could the director not show his pain and agony after the con, he was a Royal after all, his ego was supreme to him and he was robbed of it, he should have been vengeful, vile like Ronit Roy was in Udaan, but what did he do, he slunk into a chair and passed out after a drink or two, was taken as dead and might have been burnt alive, may his soul rest in peace!! too much symbolism for me to digest. Then we have Divya Dutta, only a fool would take an actor of her caliber and have her cut bhindis (and what was painted nail tips and manicured hands doing in a film set in the 50s, so much for the small things!) what a waste. Mr. Singh (the cop) although he was given a lot more screen space and dialog but he was the only bit of good acting in the film so you are left wanting to see more of him. Hero’s side kick (Vikrant Massey) did a good job, had better dialogs and looked like he belonged to that forgone era but again was wasted in the directors failed attempt to create shock by killing him abruptly.
Ranveer Singh was placid with glimpses of an actor in him, he looked good and that’s pretty much all that he achieved in the film, he should really work on his diction, I ended up missing out half of the things he said in the in-numerous whispers throughout the film, again the same flaw here too, the film, the actors, the backdrop, all set in the 50s but the dialogs and the way they are spoken was very contemporary (read: tacky). The film is dreadfully slow, sonakshi takes an eternity to say things maybe she has too much fat on her cheek bones which slows down the jaw movement or something, the film just refuses to move on. The graphics were dreadful, like some roadside multimedia center had done them (nice way to some budget cut), lot of snow but no smoky breaths, antiques in the zamindar’s collection, all close to 200 year old but none rusty or eroded, the chalice which the East India company gave him looked like had been used for a drink only recently, the dreadful Chachaji who is the leader of the brigands was not evil enough, poor chap didn’t even had sufficient dialogs to show is devilry, you would crave for someone like Jagatpal (played by the legendary Ajit ) in Ram Balram whereas you got a good for nothing suited up scarecrow with a 2 min scene.
But the biggest blunder of the film was the stupid, fat trunked, balding tree in the guest house courtyard and its existence to bring reference to The Last Leaf by O. Henry, most depressing and least meaningful, an absolute joke of an adaptation of a classic short story (dear old Oliver Henry must have looked the other way in his grave), I think the tree was colored by the same makeup artist who did the actors, it was awful.
The good things – very few and far in between, but the chase sequence was decent, could have been better, more edgier, but can be passed for as good stuff, side kick’s chase was more drawing than ranveer’s; the final emotional confrontation between ranveer and sonakshi was good, the only reason I can say this for sure is because in the whole movie that was the only time I was not irritated with sonakshi’s big head; and the music, aah the music what fine job, absolutely mesmerizing, I am thankful to Mr. Motwane for not keeping any song in the film, the actor’s desperate attempt at lip-syncing the beautiful melodies would have been the final nail in the coffin, but…we were spared of the pain, all songs are background, you can close your eyes, ignore the film and enjoy the exclusive Amit Trivedi!! Go watch it at your own peril, I’d recommend watching Despicable Me 2 instead!
- NB
aaa
ReplyDelete