“Know Means Know” ….Lost Is  A Gripping Tense Expose On Erosion Of Values

Lost(Zee5)

 Directed  by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury

Rating: ****

From the  director of the game-changing Pink  comes  a political thriller that is as much a  clutter-breaker as Pink, though the concerns are not just about women here. The  rot runs much deeper and , well, the female hero is not too safe here.

Being crime  reporter in  Kolkata(or anywhere)  is  not  a safe profession for  anyone, man or woman. Nidhi Sahani  has thrown all caution to the wimps. The goons who  tail her, and her beloved grandpa(played by everyone’s favourite patriarch Pankaj Kapoor) look as dangerous as  the  watchmen  of  a housing  colony.

 But here is the thing:  sinisterness is  not  a  signature tune, not in this  film. Danger lurks in the most ostensibly innocuous places  in Lost. Director  Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury travels  through Kolkata’s  inner bowel(no  images of Howrah Bridge, thank God). The master lensman  Avik Mukhopadhyay( who has shot extensively  with  Pink producer  Shoot Sircar,  and  for  Aniruddha’s Pink) brings Kolkata  to life as  pivotal character  in this crime drama  which starts off as love story between  a street theatre artiste  Ishaan  and  his over-ambitious  girlfriend Ankita (Tushar Pandey and Pia Bajpiee,both well played , especially Pia) and then grows into a frightening  political  drama that Costa-Gavras would  approve  of.

Yami Gautam  Dhar gets to  do  all the heavylifting in this  saga  of  serious offences against the moral edifice which  our forefathers were so proud of.She gets into the skin of  the character  as the  plot evolves. Nidhi’s  best moment of empathy is  with Ishaan’s  sister(Honey Jain)  as Nidhi urges  the  other woman to bite into a pastry. Small  simple pleasures in a world cluttered with compromise and  corruption.

 Even in the cloudiest murkiest moments of drama, the writing(by  Shyamal Sengupta and Ritesh Shah) remains lucid and clearheaded. More than  a thriller, Lost is a parable on erosion of  values in a world where you are judged  by  the cost of your clothes and  accessories.