Lootcase Hindi Movie
Nandan Kumar (Kunal Khemu) stumbles upon a suitcase full of looted/black money in director Rajesh Krishnan's 'Lootcase'. It is the year's second film that talks about the consequences of money reaching ordinary people who do not know what to do with it. Unlike Anurag Kashyap's Choked, Krishnan's film uses the trope of lost-and-found money as a plot device to only elicit laughter from the audience. Lootcase only aims for low-hanging fruit, but the movie offers a simple plot, a set of colorful and quirky characters, and many hilarious one-liners.
The plot kicks in when Khemu's character finds the treasure bag by chance, as he returns home from his blue-collar job in a printing press. Not believing his luck and fearing that taking the money will invite an attack from somewhere, Nandan Kumar confirms its ownership by asking nobody "Whose bag it is?" It is a funny scene, and Khemu performs it with just enough nervous energy to make us care for the character.
It turns out the money was lost while being delivered to a local minister by MLA Patil's men, Omar (Sumit Nijhawan) and Abdul (Shashi Ranjan). Abdul's men killed a local goon who belonged to the team of Vijay Raaz's gangster character Bala Rathore. Bala sends his men Graduate (Aakash Dabhade) and Rajan (Nilesh Diwekar) to avenge Abdul, as he transports the 10-Crore suitcase, but the whole thing goes awry and the bag ends up with someone else.
The movie takes a funnier turn when Gajraj Rao's Patil hires Ranvir Shorey's police officer Kolte to get the suitcase back for him. Kolte goes around town asking various people about the identity of the suitcase's present custodian. Watch how Kolte gets angry when a bank employee reveals a moustache as the main clue to finding Kumar. A frustrated Kolte asks, "Moustache?" "How do you recall all these details?" Shorey has played this ruthless and funny cop character before, but the actor is inventive enough to infuse freshness into the part. You could say that about every other character in Lootcase.
It is a film that works mainly for the fine ensemble cast and the situational comedy that seldom misses the beat. The best portions in the movie are the exchanges between Khemu's Kumar and his wife Lata, played by a lovely Rasika Dugal. The lady in the house suspects that her husband is hiding something from her as he goes from being a miser to a big spender. Dugal has an innate quality in her that fills the character with equal parts wit, charm and gossipy-ness. And, Khemu is a hoot as Nandan Kumar, playing a fidgety man who sees his lifelong dreams becoming possibly the worst nightmare.
The best role is perhaps Gajraj Rao's MLA Patil, who influences every second person around him with offhand remarks that seem more like death threats. He signs off each of these remarks with the punchline, "Am I threatening you?"
I wish Krishnan invested more time in Vijay Raaz's character, but his and Kapil Sawant's script gives the actor just enough material to make a mark. Bala has a penchant for wildlife shows on the National Geographic channel, and he keeps asking his men when they would subscribe to Nat Geo. This character aspect of Bala is cleverly woven into the plot, and it invites one of Lootcase's funniest scenes where a gun magazine is mistaken for the printed one. I enjoyed Lootcase. As they say, 'it is fresh wine in a new bottle'.