Lootere Star Cast/ Actors: Rajat Kapoor as Captain Singh, Vivek Gomber as Vikrant Gandhi, Amruta Khanvilkar as Avika (Vikrant’s wife), Martial Batchamen Tchana as Barkhad (pirate), Chandan Roy Sanyal as Ajay
Lootere TV Series Director: Jai Mehta
Lootere TV Series Release Date: March 22, 2024
Lootere Available On: Disney+Hotstar OTT Platform
Lootere Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi ( Dubbed In Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali)
Lootere Number Of Episodes: 8
Lootere Release Pattern: 2 Episode Released (remaining will release one per week)
Lootere Episode Duration: 40 minutes (approx each episode)
Lootere Critic Review:
When a seasoned name like Hansal Mehta is the showrunner, the first question you want to ask him is, do you really think we’re interested in Somalian politics? Even the ship that’s taken over by pirates is owned by a company in Ukraine.
Between writers Suparn Varma, Vishal Kapoor, Gibran Noorani and Anshuman Sinha, with Jay Mehtadirecting the show, an Indian angle is brought in – the ship hasCaptain Singh (Rajat Kapoor), an Indianon board; on shore, dodgy Somalia-based businessman Vikrant Gandhi (Vivek Gomber) is of Indian origin and Ajay (Chandan Roy Sanyal), a womanising no-gooder, is the son of the owner of the shipping company in Ukraine.
But none of them evoke any sympathy in the viewer.
The captain of the ship, working for a company that won’t shell out for maintenance, pulls rank on his crew, orders more pressure and speed on a vessel that can’t take it, and ends up stalling it when it’s in the troubled waters of Somalia. Why a crew member’s pregnant wife would be allowed on board, except forsome unnecessarily additional melodrama, is beyond me. And when a woman officer who’s clearly told what Somalian pirates could do to her, wanders around against wisdom and gets caught, her situation doesn’t warrant sympathy. To give the captain something substantial since he’s largely nowhere in control, he gets a mystery back story that hardly gives you the chills.
Abusive, shady Vikrant Gandhi has his hands dirty all the way. Sono way do you invest emotion in his travails.
Vikrant’s wife Avika (Amruta Khanvilkar), more stirred by the maid’s missing son than the maid herself, frequently states that she’s born and brought up in Somalia. But has little knowledge of what’s going on. For a wife who asks her husband to get out besides allowing a stranger to pull a gun on him, Avika inexplicably has a hridayparivartan, a change of heart as she sobs, “I love you, I’m missing you” to the same spouse over the phone in the very next sequence. Makes no sense at all.
As for the company in Ukraine that stinges on costs and has an aiyash Ajay on the chair, a ransom demand makes you feel they deserved it.
The pivotal characters therefore don’t arrest your attention with their troubles.
There’s a timeline flashing every few scenes. ‘2 days after hijack’, ‘7 days after hijack’, ’10 days after hijack’. But there’s no heart-stopping, nail-biting going on as the Vivek-pirates-captain-$5M consignment keeps going round and round.
Elections to the port authority of Somalia, Somalians wanting to take control from an Indian origin president, young Somalians kidnapped and indoctrinated as pirates, a power struggle among the pirates, none of this makes a connect with the Indian viewer. Especially since the vast cast of black actors is unknown.
The screenplay runs helter-skelter between various port cities of Somalia – Mogadishu, Baarawe, Harardhere – making little difference to the crooks-and-pirates story.
Mandatory jabs at the sole Pakistani in the crew ultimately says nothing.
Weakly concocted complications between husband and wife over the maid’s missing son are stretched beyond comprehension. At one stage, you wonder why Vivek simply can’t tell her that he’s met the boy and put an end to their misunderstanding.
The method employed to oust the boss (whether President of the Port Authority or the leader of the pirates) is exhaustingly repeated. The aspirant works on the assistant’s weakness, reminds him how badly he’s being treated and how well he will be if he switches loyalties. The enemy of an enemy is a friend, is repeated in different situations like a punchline. By the time there’s a shootout and Vivek’s arrogance is doused, nobody knows what’s going on. Mainly because there is such a huge disconnect.
Lootere – Watch Or Not?: It’s definitely not my cup of tea.
Lootere Review Score Rating: 2 out of 5 (i.e. 2/5)
Lootere Official Trailer:
Also Read: Madgaon Express Review: A Fun Ride