Director: Rajesh Krishnan
Cast: Kunal Khemu, Ranvir Shorey, Vijay Raaz, Rasika Dugal, Gajraj Rao
It becomes apparent during the opening scene itself, that the core plot of Lootcase (released directly on Hotstar) isn’t going to be earth-shatteringly novel. We see Nandan (Kunal Khemu) walking home from a late shift, when he stumbles on to a suitcase containing wads of cash.
This set up, of placing an unsuspecting protagonist in the middle of a convoluted plot, using tainted money as a device is time tested. In fact, another film that followed a similar plot trajectory from very recent times was Anurag Kashyap’s Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai.
Having said all this, this broadly familiar storyline has also given us many memorable films in the past. I was intrigued enough to wait and watch if Lootcase would add itself to this list.
The makers have (wisely) chosen a black-comedy canvas to narrate events. With noirish brushstrokes supplying the mood, all that was left was for the writing to deliver the goods. To quite an extent, the writing worked for me but not always.
Nandan is your everyday Mumbaikar, trying to build his life in the city of dreams. His character and family life come across as quite unremarkable, apart from an exceedingly bratty kid who would give every don in Mumbai a run for his money. The discovery of the suitcase puts him in the middle of quite a remarkable situation though.
Nandan finds himself caught in the middle of two rival city gangs, led by dons Bala (Vijay Raaz) and Omar (Sumit Nijhavan). Omar is the guilty party responsible for losing the suitcase in the first place, but now Bala is also hot on the trail having caught whiff of the suitcase’s contents.
Vijay Raaz’s caricaturish portrayal of the Nat-Geo loving, Latin name spewing don Bala is quite hilarious to begin with, but gets tedious beyond a point. However, this eccentricity of his also brought about the best moment in the film for me, though I wonder if the director fully intended it. It goes like this.
In one scene, we see Bala giving a lecture on crime to his cronies, using a Nat-Geo video of a camouflaged alligator, that waits patiently before pouncing on an unsuspecting deer. In another scene, where Nandan first finds the suitcase, we find a beautiful metaphoric re-hash of this.
In a genius ‘point of view’ play (Sanu Varghese is the DOP), the camera gets placed inside the locked suitcase. As Nandan unzips it, we get the view from inside as the suitcase opens up like an alligator’s mouth, ready to swallow and pull Nandan into the murky world of dirty money.
And swallow it does, as Nandan grapples with his new found prosperity. He even gives a name to his new suitcase friend: Anand Pettikar! But here’s the problem, he’s no whiz and mostly screws up trying to hide all the dough. This clumsy handling results in more trouble, with the morally challenged cop Kolte (the terrific Ranveer Shorey) also now hot on his heels, along with Bala and Omar.
Lootcase could have definitely done with some trimming. To give credit where due, the film is a genuine barrel of laughs at various points. It is in between, that the writers are lost trying to fill in the pages. I found the character of Nandan quite dreary for starters and it didn’t do justice at all to Kunal Khemu’s talents. And we really could have done without songs here. The unexceptional Pavitra Party song just slows everything down right in the middle.
The parts that I enjoyed most from this movie were the scenes involving the minister Patil, played sumptuously by Gajraj Rao who is in rollicking form. His unique ‘passive-aggressive’ blackmailing style had me in absolute splits every time! You reach a point towards the end of the film, where just the mere sight of him is hilarious to fathom and its fitting that the film ends with a riot of a scene involving his character.
Ultimately, as mentioned in the beginning, Lootcase delivers in parts. A shorter, snappier screenplay was the need of the hour, and maybe a touch of unpredictability too. It has its fair share of genuine laughs, and that’s the high point but it had the potential to be so much more than just a decent slapstick gag-reel that it ends up being.
Overall rating:
