Looty Review: Five years in the making and nothing to show for it 

Director Girish Kamplapur’s Looty seems designed to loot the audience of any enthusiasm might have to watch a film on the big screen. Although there was some curiosity around the film because of its title and the presence of Bollywood actor, Isha Koppikar as the protagonist, the first few frames will be sufficient to rid the audience of their misplaced curiosity.

Director: Girish Kamplapura
Cast: Isha Koppikar, Shwetha Pandit, Deepika Das, Sadhu Kokila, Andira D Souza

The film is about a few youths who steal cash from an ATM only to throw the bag with the booty into a landfill to evade the police. This bag is found by a crazy rag picker, and the youth begin their chase to get the bag back from her. In parallel, a three-member gang of petty thieves come to know of the money and they too join the action. Hunting them all is Bhavani aka Durga Bhavani, the assistant commissioner of police and her colleagues.

The next twist comes when the rag picker lands at a film set where the the director is getting ready for a sequence which requires duplicate currency notes. The rest of the film follows the thieves on the run from the police. Whether Durga Bhavani manages to nab them and what happens to the money leads us to a cold climax.

Five years in the making, the narration of this thriller is so wobbly, it makes you wonder where to go to hit your head. A lack of effort is obvious in pretty much every aspect of filmmaking.

Except for B Jayashree, who has sincerely played the role of a rag picker, nobody manages to make the least impact on screen. Isha Koppikar is supposed to be the protagonist, but it seems more like a cameo appearance as she is seen on screen only in the beginning, and in some scenes towards the end. It is better that she refrains from doing such films even if it means being remembered for only two Kannada films -- Survyavamsha and O Nanna Nalle.

The rest of the cast consisting of Kaddipudi Chandru, Dhruv, Shweta Pandit, Sadhu Kokila, Deepika Das, Andria D Souza, and everything else about this film (including the music, the picturisation) only gets on our nerves.