Lootcase Review: A Maddening, Chaotic Take On Greed And Desperation

Picture Courtesy: YouTube

Lootcase
On: Disney Plus Hotstar
Director: Rajesh Krishnan
Cast: Kunal Kemmu, Rasika Dugal, Vijay Raaz, Ranvir Shorey, Gajraj Rao
Rating:

There has to be something about people's mayhem and miseries that they make for the best comedies. Hera Pheri is a classic example, where three men, each of them with their own bunch of desperations, hatch a suicidal plan that expectedly goes horribly wrong. In recent times, we have seen a comedy like Go Goa Gone, again a story of three friends on the run for their lives from a group of zombies.

Watch the trailer right here:

Kunal Kemmu, who's always been a dependable actor, nearly stole the show in that wild and adventurous enterprise. In Lootcase, which marks Rajesh Krishnan's directorial debut, he essays the frustrations of a middle-class man, exhausted by his daily routine and excited by some quick bucks. The trailer and the title already inform that he has the suitcase containing Rs. 10 crores.

Krishnan has half the battle won with the ensemble at his disposal. Comedy and Vijay Raaz is a match made in heaven, so after a career-defining Run and the groundbreaking (almost) Delhi Belly, he now attempts another comedy where nothing about his conflicts is comical. He has two nondescript cohorts who are stuffed with animal analogies due to his overbearing and outrageous obsession with National Geography. To decipher any orders by their boss, all they have to do is just hit the subscribe button.

Gajraj Rao could be a definitive portrayal of how a minister in today's India is. Scheming, smiling, surreptitious, and smoothly passing threats without making it seem apparent. And no story with gangsters and politicians can be conceived without a cop, so Inspector Kolte, played with gusto by Ranvir Shorey, turns hot on the pursuits of the suitcase too, in cahoots with Rao. Amid this bedlam, at its heart, Lootcase is a story of ordinariness and middle-class mindsets.

It's the story of Kemmu and Rasika Dugal, who plays his wife Lata, and their charming and fleshed-out story of both romance and quarrels. If Raaz is unhealthily obsessed with animals, this couple's mind is preoccupied with Chinese food, even while wanting to get intimate. But above all, the film is the naked truth of need and greed, lies and deceit, and writers Kapil Sawant and Rajesh Krishnan create a comedy of errors around such scathing scenarios.

Even while threatening to overstay its welcome, Lootcase is any day funnier than the recent comedies that were anything but comedies. It's also a lesson to the other filmmakers how to always cast solid actors to uplift a narrative that may collapse with comparatively inferior ones, and Loot the case of what could have been a fun watch!

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