Xtreme Vogue Mumbai Desk: Komal Qureshi
Star Cast: Yami Gautam Dhar, Pankaj Kapur
Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
What’s Good: Yami Gautam Dhar attempts something different than her routine choices and even the subject matter is interesting.
What’s Bad: But doesn’t take much time to make the entire film just a surface-level sanitized tease with no real consequence or threat in sight.
Loo Break: You can feel the incompleteness of it all but nothing is so bad to put you off. If nature is calling you too rigorously, pick it up.
Watch or Not?: You can give it a try but not with too many expectations.
Language: Hindi (with subtitles)
Available On: Zee5
Runtime: 130 Minutes.
User Rating:
A young activist disappears suddenly one fine day with no reason in sight. A digging by an investigative reporter Nidhi (Yami) reveals that he brushed shoulders with some powerful head honchos and that has led to his doom.
Script Analysis
Filmmakers in recent times have hopped on to the bus again where fictional stories were weaved around real-world problems like the class divide, the power politics, and more in the commercial space. Lost finds itself in the same lands where it talks about activism in the youth from the marginalised community and how the world looks at them. But while doing so it forgets to stick to one thought at a time. Let’s decode how.
Lost on paper is a very noble idea. It has every single element that has defined a niche in the art house cinema for years. There is a strong voice that wants to be heard, the have-nots that are being oppressed in the name of help, and how the system only eats off the ones who aren’t in the position to fight for themselves. Even the central character played by Yami is so idealistic in nature because you cannot find such an honest upright journalist in current times. But if there were, the world could have been a better place.
But all this is lost supremely when the script written by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Shyamal Sengupta, and Ritesh Shah is translated on the screen. Yes, the opening is intriguing and the first few minutes when the base is being set do welcome you in very interestingly. Because a couple from a marginalised community is looking for their missing brother and a journalist gets on to the case without wasting a single minute. But what happens beyond does more harm to the subject than it should benefit.
The sanitisation of content with a more commercial gaze to it ends up making Lost a very surface-level exploration of a subject that is deeply rooted in the milieu the film is set in. Like it manages to address many conflicts but never really discusses them enough. It touches and forgets not one but multiple conversations without really giving them a conclusion. The problem begins at the very point where the film decides to shape its lead so upright and perfect that there is no scope for the grey in her to even peep, forget reflect. She has no vices, nor is she making any mistakes. She is just perfect and that instantly makes her nonrelatable.
Add to it the fact that the movie does nothing concrete in the first hour but paces up in the second with no break in sight. There is a discussion about gender politics, youth being brainwashed to fulfill political agendas, the have-nots suffering at the hands of the powerful, and even the powerful using the power to fulfill their lust. But nothing ever looks as scary and gory as it should. This kind of dilute the conflict. Because if there are killers on loose behind an investigative journalist and it looks like it happens everyday, you have already lost. Remember when I said sanitised?
Star Performance
Yami Gautam Dhar is definitely making some good choices, and this one might have even looked very tempting on paper for an actor open to experiment. But little did she know that her hard work will end up making her look like a one-tone character with no complexities living a life that doesn’t even pretend to exist out of the script. Like okay, she is in a relationship, why does everyone forget that? Why is there no impact positive or negative in the course of the film until the end?
Pankaj Kapur can make any character look like it has substance and he does that even here. But what can he do if the base itself is weak? Rahul Khanna as a one-note politician with no goal or motivation does the job as required.
Direction, Music
Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s haunting Pink starring Taapsee Pannu was a movie that was shaped well from all possible directions. It didn’t venture into unnecessary trajectories but explained the ones it touched well. Lost is confused in its very idea. What is Lost? The man of the cause he represents? Humanity or inclusivity? The filmmaker has very good intentions but not a clear vision this time and that is very saddening.
Lost tries to look beautiful, unlike Pink that did manage to create goriness even with the set design and locations. This time there is no attempt at telling a story visually through the setup.
DOP Avik Mukhopadhyay does a good job of capturing the world of Lost set in one of the most cinematic states of India. He walks with Nidhi through alleys and staircases and corridors quite beautifully.
The Last Word
Lost could have been a film that initiates a conversation that is important but it ends up diluting itself with a translation that is too bland.
Lost Trailer
Lost releases on 16th February, 2023.
