Lootcase Is Surprisingly Funny & Entertaining

Lootcase(Disney-Hotstar)

Starring Kunal Khemu,Rasika Duggal, Gajaraj Rao,Vijay raaz, Ranvir Shorey

Directed  by  Rajesh Krishnan

Rating: ***

I have to be   honest. I haven’t LOL-ed so many times in  any other recent film. And for once, the laughter  is intended. Lootcase is  a neatly written comedy  about what happens to a  middleclass  man’s  worldweary head when  he suddenly finds a gigantic suitcase filled with  banknotes.

Does he…errr…surrender  it to the police?  Or does he  stash the  money away from his wife’s prying eyes and  does he  spend the money on  a new microwave and a    Sunday outing  at the waterpark with his son and wife?

Lootcase is a  fun take on avarice and nemesis, two words that I’m sure the  film’s  hero has no idea  of.  As  Nandan Kumar our Everyman  with a windfall to  reckon with , Kunal Khemu is  a laugh riot.  I  have always felt Khemu is  the true  inheritor  of  Farouq Sheikh’s  workingclass ingenuity. Khemu crashes  into  middleclass crises  like a  drunken man walking into a glassdoor. His Nandan in  Lootcase is hootcase.

Khemu gets  exceptional support from the supporting cast: the ever-dependable Rasika Duggal as  his nagging but  upright wife. Also outstanding is  Gajaraj  Rao  as a sleazy politician who wants the fund-flush  suitcase  not for the money but a file hidden in  the cash. The way Rao  gets  favours out of those owe him some,  by sending them on instant guilt trips ,  just shows how far skilled writing can take  a plot.

So go  ahead Kapil Sawant and Rajesh  Krishnan, take  a bow while  we  laugh some more.

Ranvir Shorey is the odd one  out  as  a sullen cop turned rogue who  doesn’t smile even once  in this hilarious comedy. But my favourite  character  in this hoot of a comedy is the  delightful  Vijay Raaz as a fierce fan of  the National Geographic channel who keeps urging his two favourite henchmen to   subscribe to  his favourite  channel for them to understand his  animal metaphors.

Spoiler ahead: by the end   of  the film one of  the henchmen does the  needful.

 The devil in this wicked comedy undoubtedly lies in  the casting. Every henchman, and henchman’s henchman will have you in  splits. Even Nandan and his wife’s nextdoor neighbour is a masterclass in comic  timing when he  comes to collect his  key.

 In  these trying times of  crisis  and  depression Lootcase is just the film that will chase  your blues away….into the nearest currency-counting machine. Highly recommended.