The Power of Flashback in Vikramaditya Motwane’s ‘Lootera’: In Hindi movies, flashbacks occupy a crucial function. Not solely do they permit for the likelihood of a non-linear narrative, however additionally they add a self-reflexivity to the story. So, it is usually not unusual to see a complete movie play out as a flashback as a personality displays on the story. It’s honest to say, nonetheless, that the flashback method has been used each used and abused numerous instances in Hindi movies. When carried out proper, it helps so as to add one other layer to the characters and the story. A minute element is sufficient to make the movie greater than itself.
Flashbacks are additionally distinctive to the medium of movies, coming as an extension of story writing. As a reality of life, the way in which flashbacks play out on display screen just isn’t imagined to make sense. And but, whereas Anurag Kashyap would use it to pack hours of narrative by a flashback in “Gangs of Wasseypur” helmed by a voice-over bridging the story, somebody like Abbas–Mustan would use it in the “Race” sequence simply to invoke a way of deceit among the many viewers by revealing essential particulars by a number of flashbacks, irrespective of the substance.
Oftentimes, the method is used to disclose particular character motivations or to justify their current actions. It’s supposed so as to add one other emotional layer to the story. Whereas it does assist in underscoring and emphasising character feelings, it will probably simply flip right into a gimmick, because it does in many situations. On different events, an over-reliance on flashbacks also can put the viewers in a clumsy spot. In Vikramaditya Motwane’s second outing, “Lootera” (2013), there is just one elaborate flashback sequence.
It seems early on in the second half as Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha) struggles to write down after having moved from Manekpur, Bengal, to Dalhousie following her father’s dying ensuing from the heartbreak attributable to Varun (Ranveer Singh). After simply having adjusted to the tonal shift of the breezy summer season hues of Bengal to the darker, chilly setting of Dalhousie, Motwane throws his viewers again, one final time, to the world they’re extra aware of and have a liking for. It’s a world the place there’s nonetheless a risk of love blooming between Pakhi and Varun.
The scene performs out proper after Pakhi meets the police inspector, KN Singh (Adil Hussain), who’s searching for Varun. After denying KN Singh any details about Varun and selecting as a substitute to maneuver on, she goes again to her desk, the place she has been struggling to write down. The loss of coronary heart has saturated her capacity to inform tales. She retains making a thudding sound by dropping her pen on the desk, which fills in the in any other case restrained environment of Dalhousie. The faint sounds of Hemant Kumar singing Yaad Kiya Dilne Kaha Ho Tum on the radio drift her again to the one night time she spent with Varun at her ancestral residence. After the grimness of the hills, one wonders for a second if that is in reality a dream. Maybe that’s how Pakhi would have needed her story to proceed – as a dream. However certainly, it’s only her reminiscence of the night time enjoying out for us as a flashback.
We see Varun masked behind the mosquito web. He asks Pakhi if she is writing a narrative. We don’t see Pakhi in the reminiscence simply but. As a substitute, there’s a reduce to Pakhi in Dalhousie, feeling disbelief and rage abruptly, nonetheless making the thudding sound. When Varun insists once more, we get to see Pakhi in the flashback responding whereas scribbling in the diary, not caring to lookup.
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The entire trade takes place in a sequence of mid-shots as Varun, in a restrained, flirtatious tone, tries to investigate about what’s being written. The mellow piano-based rating provides to the setting. Despite the fact that the dialog is about some fictional characters that Pakhi may be writing about, certainly, it reveals what every of them is feeling, or hiding from the opposite. Motwane frames Varun in Lootera from outdoors the mosquito web, whereas Pakhi, who’s sitting outdoors of it, is framed from throughout the web. They occupy two completely different bodily areas, however their bond is what brings them to the identical place. As it will do in Dalhousie in the moments to come back. However for now, their existence is mutually dependent.
Via the sequence, we see Varun from three completely different angles, however for Pakhi, it is only one. It’s apparent that Varun has extra to him than he’s exhibiting. He has many different sides to him which are simply not seen to Pakhi as but. It’s accentuated additional with Varun being barely out of focus behind the online, whereas there’s a clear give attention to Pakhi by it. There’s a purity and innocence to Pakhi that doesn’t match as much as Varun’s story, which is hidden behind a lie. That’s, till Varun decides to drop the masks and are available out of the online.
We see the pair in a two-shot sharing an intimate connection, nonetheless, by a fictional story they’re conversing about in nearly a whisper. Every phrase in Lootera is fastidiously measured, in order to not leak past the confines of the room. It nearly looks like against the law to snoop on this intimate second. Varun doesn’t dare to discuss with their lives as they’re. He is aware of what his true intentions are, and but can’t cease himself from falling for Pakhi. So he takes solace in a fictional story Pakhi is writing.
His dialogues are intercut with Pakhi, with an not sure pen in her hand, sitting on her desk in Dalhousie, making sense of what she has been by. She begins to scribble, the digicam closes in on the pair, and because the music reaches a crescendo, Pakhi violently strikes off no matter she has written and throws it away. She is lastly again in the current day. And we come again to Dalhousie for good together with her. The feeling of being left alone now provides method to readability. The feeling of love she was nonetheless holding again on has given method to the necessity for closure, and she or he decides to name Singh, revealing Varun’s plan as Geeta Dutt hums to the tunes of Tadbeer Se Bigdi Hui on the radio.
All through Lootera, this sequence stands out because it appropriately emphasises the dilemma confronted by Pakhi in regards to the particular person she as soon as cherished, in all probability nonetheless does, however who broke her coronary heart and precipitated her father’s dying. Coming in the second half permits it to behave as a reminder of how stunning her life was only a few moments in the past and the way it all went downhill. Greater than anything, the use of the flashback is a good instance of filmmaking the place all components come collectively to offer life to a movie.
The screenplay is assisted by the appearing performances, that are enhanced by the staging that’s conceptualised by the cinematography and translated by the enhancing. The music and the manufacturing design add one other layer of depth to the scene. All of this comes collectively to create pressure and a dilemma throughout the viewers in addition to the characters about the place their allegiance lies. And all of it simply by a wonderfully crafted flashback.
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