Aniruddha Roy’s ‘Lost’ is an investigative thriller that revolves around a missing person named Ishan Bharti (Tushar Pandey). Released on the OTT platform, Zee5, on 16th February 2023, it depicts our main protagonist Vidhi Sahani (Yami Gautam), embarking on an investigation to find out Ishan’s whereabouts, which ultimately leads us to dwell into the sensitive issues of casteism, political corruption, Maoist propaganda, and patriarchy.
Amidst all the manipulation and corruption seeping into the status quo, Vidhi, a journalist, fights her way through the shackles of patriarchy and corruption to find out about Ishan, a theatre activist. Spectators have associated the thriller with the 2012 movie ‘Kahaani,’ where Vidya Balan is searching for her husband.
However, her search is driven by despair, but Vidhi’s is driven by curiosity. Aniruddha Roy’s directorial received praise and appreciation at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival for the extraordinary performance given by each actor in the film.
- Movie- Lost
- Directed by Aniruddha Roy
- Release date – 16th February 2023
- Streaming Guide: Zee5
Lost Movie: The Cast
The movie ‘Lost stars Yami Gautam as Vidhi Sahani, a journalist working at Daybreak. She embarks on an investigation to find out about Ishan Bharti (Tushar Pandey), who is a theatre activist. He goes missing one evening, and the police are trying their best to suppress the abduction by accusing Ishan of having Maoist ties with the extremist group headed by Bhishma Rana, who is played by Kaushik Sen.
We are introduced to Vidhi Nanu, played by Pankaj Kapur, who wins the hearts of the audience through his heartfelt performance and the love he holds for his granddaughter. Their interactions are often interlaced with tones of amusement and seriousness.
It is revealed that Ishan was madly in love with Ankita Chauhan (Pia Bajpayee), a TV anchor who later turned into a politician through the help of Varman, played by Rajesh Khanna. We are later introduced to Vidhi’s boyfriend, Aman, played by Neil Bhoopalam, whose role is quite underwhelming in the movie.
Lost Movie: The plot
Set in the streets of Kolkata, the film opens with a scene depicting a distressed sister Namita Bharti (Honeyy Jain), who files a report to the police station, stating that her brother Ishan had been missing for the past two weeks.
We learn that Ishan, who is a street theatre activist, was never into practicality or the mundane things of life. Ishan was deeply in love with a TV anchor, Ankita Chauhan. She later gets intertwined in the life of Varman, a high-ranking politician who offers her political power and stable life.
This creates a souring between the couple, shortly after which Ishan is kidnapped. His family had called him several times, but he did not answer his phone. Varman is depicted as a cunning politician who makes everyone believe that the young theatre activist had links with an extremist Maoist group and had disappeared to work for them.
However, Vidhi feels otherwise, and the plot of the film starts to unveil itself, portraying sensitive societal issues of casteism and political corruption. It is here that the character who is ‘lost’ assumes a back seat, and Gautam takes up the spotlight.
She narrates the facts of her story to her loving and humorous ‘Nanu’ (Pankaj Kapur) with a fiery passion and utmost accuracy. Even though the details are quite disturbing, the duo breaks out in humorous moments, showing the affection a grandfather holds for his granddaughter.
While feeding Gautam Upma and sambhar, he talks about the dark side and hypocrisy of violence, and then, in moments, he goes back to praising his food skills. It’s only an actor of his caliber who can pull off such a drastic shift in acting overtures and tones.
However, Yami Gautam puts an admirable performance too. Her ambition and curiosity to dig deeper unravel the story further. Emotions start to swell up within her when she meets her family Ishan. They were constantly tormented for details on whether Ishan had Naxalite links or not.
Ishan’s mother was completely fatigued, and his sister was visibly disturbed. The case had completely diverted from its main purpose of finding Ishan to keeping the matter completely suppressed.
The most important connection to this puzzle was Ankita, who was not interrogated by the police. She was also told to lie to the media by feeding them made-up stories, stating how the relationship had ended before Ishan went missing.
We witness a change in Ankita’s body language when Vidhi calls her out for deactivating her social media accounts. She gets extremely cautious and retorts with a smirk by saying that if Vidhi went missing after leaving her house, does that prove that Ankita would be responsible for that?
The investigation attracted Vidhi deeper and deeper into a spiral of complexities. While conversing with her boyfriend, Jeet, he tells her that she has lost her objectivity while pursuing the case. He continues to state that it is predictable for a Dalit boy to turn into a Maoist rebel.
This infuriating statement follows with Yami Gautam reading tweets about cases of missing persons across India with the hashtag ‘Lost.’ The film becomes more intense, creating a grim, caliginous narrative.
The first half of the movie creates an unsettling, grim situation which is followed by the second half, which, in my opinion, is a hotchpotch of ideas. We see that Vidhi and her family have received threats, especially her Nanu, who was followed by a couple of goons, telling him to silence his granddaughter before it is too late.
Vidhi personally receives an envelope with a letter in it, containing cut-out letters stuck together to form a threat. Of course, she is overwhelmed and frightened by this, and at a point in time, we see her covering her face with a scarf and sunglasses. The movie proceeds, showing Vidhi’s bitter relations with her parents.
There are references to gender biases at work, a patriarchal work environment, and marriage woes. Vidhi’s parents do not approve of her profession, labeling journalism as a ‘Mardon Wali field’ (a male-dominated field). The relationship and interactions between Vidhi and her parents kept souring until a point came when Vidhi decided that she would cut relations with both of them.
As we enter the last forty minutes of the movie, we see Vidhi interrogating Ankita, who finally tells her the truth. When confronted about why she did not talk to the police, Ankita, who looks visibly shaken, now takes a deep breath and states that she was scared.
After hearing this, Vidhi goes into a dilemma. What is important to her as a reporter, the truth or the right thing to do? Amidst the sweet sound of sarangi playing in the background, we see Vidhi and her Nanu have a heart-to-heart conversation. They both share their incidents and the hard decisions they had to make. The scenes between Kapur and Gautam are extremely endearing and heartfelt.
Vidhi meets the head of the Special Branch, Mr. Ghoshal (Arindam Seal), who tells her that her act of pursuing this mystery could lead to the case getting jeopardized. He further goes on to mock university professors, calling them pseudo-human rights activists who have nothing else to do in their free time. He also condones the actions of journalists who make the police their soft targets.
Gautam retorts by stating that the police know what happens at every level, but they turn a blind eye to the important issues at hand. The conversation ends with Ghoshal asking Vidhi not to pressure the police as they are not working solely on the basis of stereotypes surrounding politics.
As we approach the ending, we witness Vidhi mending her relations with her family and her boyfriend. The audience sees her meeting Varman but the personal interaction seems to bear no important results. The ending shows Vidhi on a call with Bhishma Rana (Kaushik Sen). From here, the audience gathers that Ishan is alive but under a different name and passport.
He was abducted by a bunch of Varman’s goons but was later taken away by Bhishma Rana and his gang. Realizing that he had no choice but to remain under the shelter of Bhishma or get hunted down by the police, Ishan stayed under the vigilance of Rana.
Vidhi requests Rana to let Ishan come back to his family, but Rana replies by asking who would protect him and guarantee his safety. “Till leaders like Varman are present, the ‘Ishans’ of the world would remain ‘Lost.’
Back at Varman’s ancestral house, Ankita receives a video from Ishan herself, who says that her life is in danger. People were going to bomb her and Varman the moment they left the place. Alarmed, Ankita showed the video to Varman, who is the cunning person he is, and ordered his assistants to leave the place tonight as he and Ankita would stay back for a conference.
The scene shifts to convoys carrying the team, which are later bombarded at the Chenapetti village road and killed instantly. As the news reached Vidhi, she was shattered at realizing that Ishan had become something he desperately wanted to avoid.
The scene again shifts to Varman attending a conference at his home. The newsagents are asking for details about the suspected Maoist ambush to him. As far as political propaganda and corruption go, Varman accused Ishan of being a pawn in the game of Bhishma Rana. He envisions a future where the young are not brainwashed and manipulated by these rebels and militants.
Infuriated at this comment, Ankita yells in resentment and shares the video in which Ishan warns her of the foreseen doom to Vidhi. We see Vidhi brightening up and finishing the story she started. He had not fallen victim to vengeance, vendetta, violence, and politics. The ending captures Vidhi with the mother and sister of Ishan while a vibrant, golden ray of sunshine falls on them, symbolizing hope.
Lost Movie Review
While the first half of the movie created a very good build-up, the second half seemed dissatisfying. The movie tried to talk about too many sensitive themes at once that it did not do justice to any of them. There is a reference to heavy topics of gender bias, marital friction, family ties, Naxal violence, and political propaganda. The movie starts off with a missing person, but by the end, the whole focus of the movie seems disarrayed.
The plot had too many loose threads. Questions remained unanswered, and the audience was left with doubt. We never got to know why Varman was interested in Ankita. We never get to know about Ishan and his motivations. Why was he abducted? By the first thirty minutes, Ishan takes a back seat in the film, and the focus moves to Vidhi, which consequentially reduces the potential of other characters.
Ankita, whose character background could have been dissected into many layers, did not have enough screen time, so something felt amiss. Vidhi’s boyfriend, Aman, was a very underwhelming character whose impact was negligible. It would be extremely easy to forget the interactions these two had over the course of the film.
The only person who stole the spotlight apart from Gautam’s commendable acting is Pankaj Kapur, who plays the Nanu of Vidhi. His acting, tone, and gestures were a saving grace for this film. Khanna as the politician also provided a stunning performance. He grips his character very well and plays the part impeccably.
The script seems half-baked. Even though the first twenty minutes of the movie are quite gripping, it just touches the surface of a multitude of issues and then forgets about them. The movie might have looked great on paper, but the execution is ultimately disappointing.
Our Verdict
The movie ‘Lost’ is very intriguing to watch at the beginning, keeping the audience greatly interested during the first twenty minutes of the plot. However, as the plot unveils, the story becomes more diluted. Dealing with so many issues at once, the film lost its main essence, which was quite disappointing.
I will rate the movie a 3 out of 5 stars. It looked like a confused mess of ideas. The filmmaker had a solid plot, but the ending did not have much of an impact. In conclusion, I would like to say that Lost could have been a very impactful movie, but the multitude of themes was quite distracting as the execution was bland.
Our Rating: 3/5.
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