Lost Movie Review: Yami Gautam's remarkable performance isn't enough to sail the imperfect yet powerful thriller

Lost Movie Review: A gripping plot and great build-up culminate into a rather dull climax, leaving us wondering what we just watched. Yami Gautam's latest release on Zee5, Lost, is more than just a confined thriller as it sheds light on the important national topic of people going missing every hour. The film is thought-provoking and manages to get us emotionally and mentally invested in the subject. However, it lacks powerful execution. At one point, you feel the big reveal will take your breath away but when things unfold, there’s very little that surprises you.

Director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Lost has an interesting storyline, but it demands a little more effort to deliver perfection. The poignant issues are handled remarkably well and sensitively. Kudos to the director for that!

Set in Kolkata and inspired by true events, Lost narrates the story of a crime reporter Vidhi Sahani (Yami), who lives with her maternal grandfather and professor Avinash Srivastav (Pankaj Kapur). She is investigating a story of a young Dalit theatre artist Ishaan Bharti (Tushar Pandey), who has gone missing and is untraceable. He’s in love with Ankita (Pia Bajpiee) but fate has other plans. After Vidhi discovers that Ankita is now vying for an MLA’s seat and is in touch with established political leader Ranjan Varman (Rahul Khanna) for which she is being politically favoured, she tries to connect the dots. However, Kolkata police are determined to pass it off as a case of Maoist radicalisation. Dismissing Ishaan's family's stance that he was never interested in politics, police claim that he has connections with Bhisam Rana (Kaushik Sen), a Mao extremist leader.

An engaging first half keeps the intrigue high, forcing you to think if Ankita and Ranjan killed Ishaan or if they are involved in the case. But the second half bores and runs at a slow pace. Talking about the film's background music, and the struggles of a crime reporter, where on one hand Yami is getting anonymous threats to stop working on the story, resistance from her parents and boyfriend (Neil Bhoopalam) or being warned by her nanu of her safety, the film scores a 10/10. But with a few flaws, the climax appears to be unconvincing.

Written by Shyamal Sengupta and Ritesh Shah, the movie showcases a battle between what's right versus what's the ultimate truth and it represents a higher quest and a search for lost values of empathy and integrity. It's a tightly-knit script but demands a better climax. Definitely watch it for the journey and not for a cathartic end.