Finance
One fine day, a young man who performs ‘nukkad naatak’ on Kolkata’s bustling streets goes missing. His sister and mother are distraught because no one, least of all the police, appears to be interested in finding him. A journalist with a good nose for trouble is on his tail, asking probing questions and making some powerful people uncomfortable: ‘Lost,’ directed by Aniruddha Roy Choudhary, begins with a lot of promise.
However, as the story progresses, it becomes more about Vidhi (Yami Gautam), an intrepid reporter, rebellious daughter, and loving granddaughter, rather than Ishan (Tushar Pandey), the theatre activist in a tumultuous relationship with the ambitious Ankita (Pia Bajpiee), and his trajectory. The film’s title is based on the story of a person who is ‘lost’ takes a back-seat, and it is the film that gets lost.
That shift detracts from the themes it is attempting to emphasize, which are all important but forced to overlap — the underprivileged have no say, caste and class determine fate, but individuals can shift the needle. When a privileged young man states ‘what’s so surprising about a Dalit youth becoming a Maoist’, it’s not that the statement cannot be true, but it is not the only truth.
As the end credits roll, statistics about people going missing in India flash across the screen. But we never really get to know enough about the earnest Ishan, and his motivations. What exactly happened to him? What caused him to go missing? What causes did he support? Almost every other character in the film suffers from this shadiness – Ishan’s ambitious girl-friend (Bajpiee), the menacing politician (nice to see Rahul Khanna on screen, but he really can’t do menace), the senior ‘neta’ who doles out advice, the cops who are more obstructive than anything else.
The plot of ‘Lost,’ which has elements of ‘Kahaani’ and ‘No One Killed Jessica’ (Kolkata, missing person, fiercely independent journalists upholding the values of integrity and justice), reduces the other characters to satellites who revolve around Vidhi. Pankaj Kapur, who plays her twinkly-eyed, wise grandfather, is the only one who stands out.
As a result, ‘Lost’ is atmospheric but ultimately unsatisfying.
Lost movie cast: Yami Gautam, Pankaj Kapur, Neel Bhoopalam, Rahul Khanna, Pia Bajpiee, Tushar Pandey
Lost movie director: Aniruddha Roy Chaudhary
Lost movie rating: 2 stars
Source:IE
