Looop Lapeta Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
It’s a wonderful day for Hindi cinema, every time a new filmmaker makes a solid debut with a feature that just refuses to conform to the ways of mainstream Bollywood and dares to solidly and confidently tell people, they have arrived.
Today, we’re talking about Aakash Bhatia’s ‘Looop Lapeta’, now streaming on Netflix, which is an official adaptation of the German cult-classic, genre-bending, one of the best things in the whole universe, ‘Run Lola Run’, written and directed by Tom Tykwer.
The film has been moved to Goa, which I found to be a genius move. Because 2022 mein ek jagah se doosri jagah jaane key liye, shehro mein toh koi dikkat hoti nahi, cab bulaao, train pakdo, auto mein lapak ke ghus jaao, bahutere options hain.
But, in Goa, especially usually susegad, if you’re not pre-prepped, you’re shit out of luck.
I love Goa so much.
Savi and Satya, are shit out of luck. Satya is involved with some bad folks, jinke 50 lakh he has lost, and now they have to come up with the money, within the hour.
So far, so inspired by the original.
Aakash Bhatia then works with 4 writers, in addition to himself, Dr. Vinay Chawal, Ketan Pedgaonkar, Arnav Vepa Nandur, and Puneet Bhatia to open up the world of Lola and Manny, making it as Savi and Satya as possible.
There are three major subplots involving supporting characters added in, which contribute toward the extra duration of the film. Of the three, the one with a restaurant run by a mobster works the best. Without going into a spoiler or too much explanation territory, pay close attention to what’s going on with the chef and owner of the kitchen Satya is employed at, so many easter eggs it’s mad fun.
And that’s what ‘Looop Lapeta’ is. It’s fun and a ridiculous flight of fancy. The director’s advertising background is visible in his filmmaking, which while refreshing does tend to skirt too close to style over substance. Right after the mid-point, the screenplay lags, when a sub-plot involving two brothers trying to rob their father’s jewelry store, while hilarious, stretches on a few minutes too long.
‘Run Lola Run’ took concepts like chaos theory, butterfly effect, debates around free will vs determinism and poured it all into a story about a girl running through a city, over and over, respawning without explanation. We were thrown in and were expected to make sense of it, which honestly I couldn’t then.
I was also like, 10 years old.
‘Looop Lapeta’ ponders this carefully. Aware of the audience it’s reaching out to, how much of the original’s ambiguity should it retain, along with expanding Lola’s world to turn it into Savi’s? This attempt is most visible in the animated opening credits, which here are used to tell Savi’s back story.
Animation is used over and over in the original, but very differently. But also in this attempt, some dialogue, dips a toe in exposition-y waters, almost trying too hard to reassure the audience that this is not a remake, it’s an adaptation, let me tell you exactly how it’s different.
Taapsee Pannu is Savi, another character who used to run professionally but has been forced to stop, due to circumstances not in her control, and of all the many films we’ve seen her in lately, this feels like the most natural fit for the actor.
She’s visibly physically stiff throughout the film, partly because of the character’s athletic build, partly because of the stress of figuring out how to change every living minute if she wants to save the man she loves, being given a chance to re-do an hour over and over, but unaware how many more such chances are left.
Like the bathroom where she respawns on her birthday like a video game, the inside of her brain is cluttered, but through the film, we find out she knows where each little thing is, within the mess.
Tahir Raj Bhasin, who is having a moment right now yall, is my absolute fav part about this film. An actor who melts into not just character, but his clothes, the landscape, the changing tonality, borderline genre shifts the film goes through. Partly thanks to Yash Khanna’s inspired cinematography, Tahir’s Satya is the most attractive sight in Loop Lapeta, literally and otherwise.
The entire cast frankly is really on point, excess of screentime notwithstanding. Shreya Dhnwanthary gets a lovely, manic monologue that makes you want to hug her and throw a glass of water in her face at the same time.
Dibyendu Bhattacharya is Victor, a mobster with a relatable little secret. TV veteran Rajesh Chawla gets some of the funniest scenes slapping around his dumbass sons played by Manik Papneja and Raghav Raj Kakker.
Everyone is important to the universe the writers of ‘Looop Lapeta’ create. The taxi driver you see so prominently in the trailer Jacob, played by Sameer Kevin Roy agar film mein joh-bhi 5–6 scenes hain, unke liye nahi hota toh this could have well been set in Meerut, he embodies the very specific, almost make-believe Goa this film is set in.
Existentialism has taken on a whole new meaning, at least for me recently. Purpose, plans, goals, time, don’t mean what they used to. In the middle of this comes a film that knowingly acknowledges the very fears people are living with.
You can drop dead any moment, toh jitni life hai usko apne terms pe jeene ke liye, kya karogey, kaisey badloge trajectory? Satya while talking about God looks directly into the camera, looks into my soul, as I, both destiny writer bhagwaan and active observer film critic watch him ekdum uske sir ke oopar se, attached and disconnected from him all at once.
Even if you don’t want to think about all of this, watch ‘Looop Lapeta’ on Netflix this weekend, to have fun. It has puzzles, red herrings, homages, and lots of room for you to make your own meaning, which is my favorite kind of film.
Now for, Relation Mein Recommendation.
‘Run Lola Run’, obviously, but also on Netflix is the Andy Samberg and Cristin Milloti starrer ‘Palm Springs’. That too is a fresh, really silly yet deep take on the time loop format of storytelling. Must must watch.
