Lootera Movie Reviews

"Once upon a time." Those are four magic words, four words that promise us the world, adventure and romance and fantasy and drama. The starter's pistol to any fairytale, they offer up immediate escape: "a time" is never now, you see, and we're instantly whisked away from the humdrum of our everyday. Our imagination, like a suddenly alert hound, perks up its ears and begins to underscore even ordinary narratives with flourishes the narrator

How do two people fall in love? When do they first realize it is love and not just infatuation or physical attraction? In life we often wonder if it is real love that we feel for another person or an emotion with another name. So we seek wisdom of wiser people -- writers, musicians and even filmmakers to guide us through that sense, since real life results in more confusion. In Vikramaditya Motwane’s sophomore project Lootera

There are films that leave such an impact on you that one wonders whether he/she should even write a review for it. Vikramaditya Motwane’s ‘Lootera’ is one such film. Calling it a film would probably be a deep injustice to it – it is nothing short of poetry on celluloid. ‘Lootera’ puts a dagger through the heart, makes it bleed profusely and then smears the elixir called love all over it.

Like 'Udaan', his feature debut from 2010, 'Lootera', directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, is exquisitely crafted. While Udaan was the coming of age tale of a small-town teenager going head to head with his despotic father, 'Lootera' is steeped in old-fashioned romance. At the heart of this film is a young couple faced with insurmountable odds. And yet, it isn't so much the film's story, but in its telling that Motwane woos you. Skillfully combining the key tools

Did you ever anticipate Vikramaditya Motwane to put together a period film with mainstream actors, after attempting the brilliant slice-of-life drama UDAAN? Nope, not me at least... But maverick film-makers, by and large, tend to drop a bombshell by opting for a contrasting theme in their ensuing movie. The question is, will Motwane ship yet another dazzling nugget in his subsequent outing? Let's find out

Lootera is a love saga of yore. The plot is an amalgamation of a story written by Vikramaditya Motwane with O'Henry's short story, The Last Leaf. It begins in Manikpur, West Bengal, in 1953. A zamindar (Barun Chanda) dotes on his well-educated but impressionable girl, Pakhi ( Sonakshi Sinha). The landlord's Munim warns his master that courtesy the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950, zamindars like himself

Vikramaditya Motwane has painted this film in West Bengal and Dalhousie and set it in the ’50s era. Yes, I used the word painted because this film is more than just a film. It is more like one of those beautiful paintings that you get mesmerised by when you come across them in old palaces or museums. Those sublime paintings where the detailing is so painstakingly crafted that they almost transport you to the era that it was painted in

An epic canvas, a quiet love story, a cops-and-robbers drama and an impressively sophisticated storytelling style: Lootera has all this and much more. Vikramaditya Motwane, who earned his spurs with the critically acclaimed Udaan in 2010, works here with a completely different cinematic easel. What he has carved out of the raw material at his disposal can only bolster his reputation as a filmmaker who knows exactly how not to

Lootera is like a Monet landscape. Picturesque and poignant at the same time. It takes a simple O Henry story – The Last Leaf, and adapts it to a period setting in Bengal and North East India. It’s a work of art. Slow, deliberate and introspective. It’s one of the best films you’ll watch this year. It’s a triumph of its director’s vision. And a win for the performances of its lead actors. The best literary works are essentially simple stories

Hark back to the post-Independence era to watch this visually compelling love story that dips into large deposits of emotions in a rather old-fashioned manner. Leaning on a skeleton of Maupassant’s short story, The Last Leaf, writers Vikramaditya Motwane and Bhavani Iyer keep it simple. The pampered, much-protected writer-daughter of a zamindar, Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha) becomes vulnerable when she loses her heart to lootera

Set in the 1950s, a con-man Varun lands up in Manickpur, Bengal to steal an ancient idol from the local temple. While carrying out his operation, he loses his heart to the Zamindar’s beautiful daughter Pakhi. On the day of their engagement, Varun along with his ransom goes absconding. Years later, fate brings the estranged lovers face to face in the most peculiar of situations! Bubbling with the aftermath of being cheated in love

Lootera' does a rare feat.. It's not only a good cinema but also rewarding and inspiring something of a triumph. Balaji's first love story and Vikramaditya Motwane second outing after the highly acclaimed 'Udaan' is an intoxicating vintage heart stealer that piously and poignantly raises the bar of bollywod cinema and making all of us awed by the magic called cinema.. Sheer delight. Vikramaditya Motwane and Bhavani Iyer twine their love story with

Inspired from American author O. Henry’s short story The Last Leaf, Lootera is a beautifully narrated, well-crafted love story that will make you fall in love with it again and again.

Now the big question: will a film like Lootera work at the box office? The question is irrelevant. It wouldn’t matter, at least from the critical point of view, even if it were to fail to get its point across to an audience weaned on Dabangg, Rowdy Rathore, Son of Sardar and suchlike. It would still be a magnificent film.

Every frame is a picture postcard. Sonakshi, Barun Chanda and Ranveer need special mention. However, be suitably warned; the old-world aura and the languid pace are not for the young and restless.

What happens when a filmmaker who cites Emir Kusturica’s Underground (1995) as one of his favorite films decides to make a film inspired and......

It is hard to pigeonhole O Henry’s The Last Leaf. Is it a love story — a pathos-filled culmination of something longer? Or is it about the human psyche that causes dreams and desires, mired in the monotony of survival, to express itself in ways beyond rationalising? A short story is, by definition, short. To transform it into a feature-length film brings with it the challenge (and the freedom) of conjuring up convincing motivations and back stories

I remember watching Udaan at a very private screening — with two other people — at a Mumbai preview theatre and howling away. I had a happy childhood and had no issues with my father but this man Vikramaditya Motwane lent a universal sweep to a very personal story. By the end of it, I had watched one of the best directorial debuts on the Indian screen, arguably one of the best Indian films of the decade.

Music plays from a brown, rugged box - listen carefully - it's a song - Apne pe bharosa hai to ye daanv laga le... This song plays several times in the film Lootera and every time one is reminded that it's a Vikramaditya Motwane film. Motwane is the Director, who created a passionate and sensitive film like Udaan. Motwane builds up an atmosphere of love and longing through his characters adding to the allure of the film

The good thing about Bollywood’s GenNow top lot is most of them are trying to make a difference, beyond the obvious stardom circus. Lootera underlines why the standard Bollywood romance need not be about a crazed loverboy chasing the girl. Love stories, the film reminds you, can have layers too.

‘Lootera’ oozes with the allure of an old-world charm and Sonakshi befittingly plays the heroine of this epic drama. Vikramaditya Motwane’s subtle love story has an inherent appeal but is weighed down by a labored pace.

His first film Udaan (2010) was both a commercial success and an entry at Cannes. It’s the kind of reception Bollywood films would get back in the 1950s (Awaara, Do Bhiga Zameen ….). Those films exuded a certain self-assured thehraav, and a love for language, words, even quieter emotions. As does this film.

Period films usually mean big budget bonanzas which overwhelm you with expensive sets, elaborate costumes, a big star cast, computer graphics and other paraphernalia. In that Lootera is different. But that's not the only thing that's different. For starters, the film doesn't attempt to overwhelm you in any way. Lootera charms you and slowly (pun intended) draws you into its lost world. Lootera set in the year is 1953, is a love story of Pakhi

Vikramaditya Motwane ships you into another era, to a time when India has been set free from the Britishers. The year is 1953 to be precise. Zamindars are having the best of time, but targeting them (after a government order to take over a major part of their land) are white-collared crooks. The premise is set, the grained texture on the screen takes you back in time and the subdued voice of Ranveer Singh, almost apologetic, very true

Lootera is based on a century-old short story 'The Last Leaf' by American writer O Henry. Somewhere the short story has decent potential for a short film. But Vikramaditya Motwane is one filmmaker who knows how to extract maximum gratification out of minimalism. He proved that in his debut film Udaan and he does that again in Lootera, justifying the feature length body to the soul of O Henry's petite plot

Cut back to the era of pure romance. Not quite made for each other, a Zamindar’s daughter and a mysterious stranger, talk in casual whispers by a lakeside. She articulates her feelings, he’s not quite sure how to respond. That’s just one of the many delicate vignettes in director Vikramaditya Motwane’s 'Lootera', "inspired" as the end credits hurriedly mention, by O.Henry’s short story 'The Last Leaf'. Incidentally, it was earlier adapted

Lootera stands apart from every Hindi film in the last decade at least. You wouldn’t want to miss such a unique cinematic experience.

An O Henry short story is the spark that ignites a cinematic interpretation that undoubtedly would leave even the celebrated writer dazzled, if unaffected. Director Vikramaditya Motawane has constructed an elaborate experiment of a film. A big-budget visual delight starring A-list actors, Lootera's story is simplistic; it's telling self-consciously un-Bollywood, and one that aspires for artistic glory

I should have watched Lootera backwards, because it finishes with an almost unbearable loveliness. The ache in the heart comes as a welcome relief, but a little too late. The journey towards the end is shot through with beauty, one painterly frame after another evoking admiration, but it did not touch me. And that is where Vikramaditya Motwane's film becomes a disappointing second act, after his magnificent debut Udaan

It has left me with some indelible scenes which are sheer poetry, but this is one of those films that I wanted to like much more than I did.

It’s remarkable how one-film-old Motwane manages to create such an exquisite masterpiece without ever trying too hard. Truly worth a standing ovation.

On the whole, Lootera is a beautifully made, brilliantly shot and wonderfully enacted love story which will be loved by the classes and evolved audience only. It is a painting on celluloid which will win a lot of critical acclaim and awards. It will not find favour with the masses and single-screen cinema audience which may even reject the film, mainly because it is excruciatingly slow.