Lootera: Where love lies, lives & dies

I don't know what is the karmic connection I share with Vikramaditya Motwane, but it is strange how his stories connect with me at some deep personal level. It last happened when I watched his debut film, Udaan;  as it made me revisit my childhood. This time it is love & the way I feel about it, the love as I know it, or at least how I would like it to be felt. As writing about films isn't my way to earn my Old Monk & Classic Milds, I can say what I have to, without caring much about the word count, or what the readers are interested in - the star rating of the review.

As I had said in my Raanjhanaa post, this post also doesn't tell you much about the film. You can only read the thoughts it triggered in my mind & soul. Anyway it is too late for a review, but that's not the point. I have to share this small story with you. Thanks to the internet I happened to interact with a reader of my blog & soon enough after some polite comment exchanges, the conversation became a telephonic one. The reader was oceans away from me, but there was a connect. We used to talk for hours on the phone. It felt just like the way I did when I used to talk to the waves outside Haji Ali.

One fine day when it began to seem like a fragment of my already fertile imagination, I asked the reader if she was for real or was I ready to see a shrink... Well it turned out that she was real & I could save the shrink ka fees for a daru session! Yay!!! All the while I was thinking that all that she said were a bunch of lies. Just like I had lied once. But everything she said was true to the last full stop. Me on the other hand had lied about everything to the girl I thought had fallen in love with. So what if then I was still to grow my first moustache. Varun Shrivastava better known as Ranveer Singh in Lootera brought back those memories.

Another question that I always had, popped up again, thanks to Lootera. Does true love set you free or bind you for good. Pakhi better known as Shotgun Jr or Sonakshi Sinha in Motwane's labour of love brought back that question. Sometimes you fall in love and are tied to it till the end of your life; good, bad or ugly. We can't say when love begins, but we can see when it begins to wear off. But how can love wear off? Was it even love in the first place. The only thing I have seen wear off in my life are my 'sale ka maal' denims. Even my first school crush is permanently etched in my heart, forever.

I am not sure why, but Lootera also reminded me of Kunal Kohli's Fanaa & Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black, in bits. If you've watched the film, you know what I am talking about. If not, please do watch it. In the melee of 100cr blockbusters & quirky black comedy, here's a film that treads its own ground. It takes its own sweet time to establish the background and once that job is done, it takes a beat and bitchslaps a masterpiece (albeit flawed) in your face, that in its own humble way will be remembered by Pakhi, if nobody else... I sure will remember the 'Last Leaf' till I have completed my time in this blasted space!

One more question that I had seems to be partially answered in Lootera. Hear these two songs:

Itti si hasi, itti si khushi (Barfi!)

Saiyyara (Ek Tha Tiger)

The first one says: 'Aadhi aadhi baant le, aaja dil ki ye zameen...'

The second one says: 'Aasmaan, tera mera hua khwaab ki tarah dhuaan dhuaan'

In love, should we share our dil ka space equally, or fully takeover the 'aasmaan' of your lover...

Another strong thought that came up was - how much hurt will one take in the name of love. I am sure many girls I walked out midway through a date, for not liking Sholay / Jhankaar Beats / Satya, or perhaps not appreciating this gem from Company - Tumse kitna pyaar hai, might want to kill me. How much would it take to want to kill someone for being an asshole, but still be forgiving and embrace him / her thanks to the love you have for him / her...

Till I find out my answers, I leave you with this beautiful gem from Lootera...    

Zinda hoon yaar... qaafi hai! Long live the Amit Trivedi-Amitabh Bhattacharya team!



P.S.: Pardon the rhyming headline, occupational hazard you see ;-)