June 08, 2023

Lost: A Film On Missing Poeple That Loses Focus

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2023-02-19 14:00:04

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Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

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Director Aniruddha Roy Choudhary had grabbed the attention of the Hindi-speaking audience with Pink, a powerful and hard-hitting legal thriller on sexual harassment, rape and political influence. Hence, expectations are always high from him as he has set the bar high. In that sense, Lost (streaming on Zee 5) will not satisfy the audience for despite being a thriller, the film moves at a languid pace and delves into areas that take away the focus from the main story - the investigation into a missing Dalit boy which involves an influential politician. The film is inspired by true stories as more than 500 people go missing in Kolkata alone every month, as the protagonist tells her boyfriend.

Since the film is based in Kolkata, it is easy for the police to brand the missing boy Ishan (Tushar Pandey) a Maoist and start harassing his family and friends once a missing person case is lodged by his sister. Journalist Vidhi Sahani (Yami Gautam, fitting perfectly in the role, down to giving intstructions to the maid in Bengali)) starts investigating the case but comes up against dead ends as no one is willing to speak up. Ishan was in a relationship with Ankita (Pia Bajpai) but she denies it. The deft touches of goons threatening Vidhi and her nanu (Pankaj Kapoor in an absolutely lovable role) are purely Aniruddha Roy Choudhary’s class, especially the scene where the goons accost nanu at Dhakuria Lakes where he had gone for his morning walk. The film is a thriller but never gives out proper answers - instead it takes the viewer on a tour of Vidhi's relations with her parents and her boyfriend. It builds up a story of what a reporter is supposed to do when he or she is forced do decide between what is true and what is correct, as despite getting the marriage application of Ishan and Ankita, Vidhi is in a dilemma whether to publish it as Ankita tells her she will commit suicide if the truth comes out.

Kolkata is captured brilliantly with all the lanes and bylanes of North Kolkata coming alive on screen as Vidhi chases several leads to get to the bottom of the story. Choudhary fans will love the way he keeps the threat looming without actually showing any violence. But the end result is not as satisfying as it could have been after the excellent and interest-arousing beginning. Yet lovers of crime stories and thrillers who are not put off by the slow pace cane spend two hours watching Lost as it is a different kind of experience from the gore that is now dished out to generate thrills.