‘Ek Dalit ladka Maoist ban gaya iss mein surprising kya hai?’ This dialogue, perhaps, sums up the ethos of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Lost. The film streaming on ZEE5 is a story of lost things — integrity, empathy, conviction — and it builds a potent tale that leaves the audience asking questions about the norm.
Set in Kolkata, Lost revolves around an investigative crime journalist Vidhi Sahani, played by Yami Gautam, who picks up the story of a simple ‘missing’ case that often would remain as a ‘news brief’ in newspapers and go unreported in the electronic media. The person in question is a Dalit boy called Ishan Bharti (Tushar Pandey), an idealist and nukkad natak enthusiast who disappears under strange circumstances involving a romance, an ambitious woman and a charming but dangerous politician.
Roy Chowdhury is no stranger to asking hard questions and this film also addresses a lot of important issues — Dalit politics, ethical journalism, gender bias, patriarchy, power structures — to the extent that sometimes it feels too overwhelming and the issues are not always given the treatment they individually deserve. But one thing that Lost gets spot-on is the casting, whether it is the actors playing each role or the city of Kolkata whose character is palpable throughout the film – a shout-out here to cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay.
Yami slips into the role of a journalist without a hiccup, recording on her phone when necessary, switching to notepad and pen with people who might not be comfortable with a phone. The journalist in me can’t help but identify when she chomps jhaalmuri before walking into a police station, or her odd hours of leaving home and returning, and her interaction with her sources are mostly grounded in
realism. She embodies a certain grit combined with understandable uncertainty. Her fear, dejection and relief feel genuine.
Yami, though, is often at her best when she is playing off her Naanu – Pankaj Kapur, who steals every scene he is in as the wise and practical friend, philosopher and guide. The scenes between Kapur, an ex-principal of a college who often feels like Sidhu Jyatha of Feluda fame, and Yami are often the highlight of the almost two-hour film. And we definitely wouldn’t mind seeing more of them.
The rest of the cast also shine in their respective roles, whether it is Rahul Khanna as the suave but deadly politician Ranjan Varman, who is at the heart of what happens to Ishan, or Jeet (Neil Bhoopalam), Vidhi’s long-distance boyfriend who is unable to understand her obsession with her job to the detriment of their relationship. Then there is the lost boy himself, played by Pandey, who embodies the idealism and joie de vivre of Ishan with such conviction that he feels absolutely real.
The only character that feels underserved is that of Ishan’s love interest Ankita Chauhan, played by Pia Bajpiee. What motivates a woman like Ankita to forget about any harm that could have come to the man she loved? How does she handle the guilt? Her changes feel sudden and I found it difficult to feel empathy for her.
Lost is not an easy weekend watch because it deals with a lot of heavy-hitting issues and not always in a seamless narrative. But it is a story that needed to be told just so that some people would pause and think for a moment of what they consider not surprising anymore.
