Lootere review: Deliciously intriguing, tense and thrilling.

Lootere review: Deliciously intriguing, tense and thrilling.

What: Lootere - You know that a content will be unsettling and thrilling when Hansal Mehta is behind it. His latest, Lootere, is a pirate-on-plunder drama where he is credited as a Showrunner along with director Jai Mehta who forays into the treacherous seas of the cinematically unexplored Somalia.

Lootere review

All hell breaks loose when a ship carrying a hefty consignment is taken hostage by the pirates leaving you gasping as the Captain (Rajat Kapoor) and his team fight for survival. Entering the twisted world of crime to fulfil a dangerous demand of safeguarding and smuggling dangerous goods is never easy for the President of the shipping corporation, Vikrant (Vivek Gomber) who has to look for help from his shady partners – Chandan Roy Sanyal, the son of the Owner and Bilaal (Gaurav K Sharma) when the ship gets hijacked.

On the other side, the Captain and his crew try to beat the armed pirates but in vain as they have a pounding crime legacy. Jai and his team of writers – Suparn Varma and Anshuman Sinha create an unfamiliar and achingly authentic world and conjure a bleeding tale of survival. I use ‘bleeding’ because the punches and blows look throbbingly genuine. You squirm in your seat as the narrative takes you grippingly though the predicament of the crew in an alien land and foreign waters.

Lootere boasts of an expansive canvas and meticulous craft – an intimidating vessel and a menacing band of menacing pirates, assembling the African actors must have been an arduous task, thanks to Mukesh Chhabra Casting Co. The story takes you on an emotional roller coaster keeping the pressure cooker urgency intact.

It also scores in extracting stellar performances from the cast – Rajat Kapoor portrays the haplessness of the Captain with elan and Vivek Gomber is top notch exhibiting the myriad shades of emotions – frustration, dismay and agony. He knows that he is on the wrong path but still chooses to do his best. He is loyal, determined yet vulnerable when his loved ones, comprising his wife played by Amruta Khanvilkar, are at risk. The African actor Martial Batchamen Tchana is menacing and superb in his part.

The title track is composed by Achint Thakkar and exhibits a groovy yet gloomy and subversive mood in line with the adrenaline rush and clumsy setting. On the whole, Lootere gives you the feel of a tightly knit and energetic thriller with the real captain of this ship being Jai Mehta.