Never has deception looked as spectacular in cinema. Varun, a serial trickster who comes to rob a wealthy zamindar, falls in love with his radiant, feisty, doe-eyed daughter, Pakhi. From the first meeting itself, their entire love story unfolds like a mesmerising car ride ending in a disastrous accident. The two hour and fifteen minutes long film, Lootera (2013), directed and written by Vikramaditya Motwane with Anurag Kashyap (dialogue) and Bhavani Iyer (screenplay), is loosely based on O. Henry’s classic short story The Last Leaf. Additionally, it refers to the age-old Indian tale of the king whose life resides in a parrot, depicting with finesse the universality of certain narrative tropes. With actors Sonakshi Sinha (Pakhi) and Ranveer Singh (Varun) in leading roles, the film has an interesting range of characters played by Barun Chanda (zamindar Soumitra Ray Chowdhury), Vikrant Massey (Dev), Adil Hussain (Inspector K.N. Singh) and Divya Dutta (Shyama).
Many would say, Lootera, is an ode to the female gaze. Meticulously shot with stunning close-ups framing the gentle contours of Pakhi’s face in warm light, the narrative seems to be Pakhi’s tale – her life, love and misfortune. However, in a recent viewing, a big screen experience made possible by the re-release of the film after 12 years, my eyes caught the rebellion smouldering in Varun’s intense close-ups. Initially, it is through Pakhi’s furtive glances that we view Varun, however that shifts very early on. It is through the tussle between Varun’s love for Pakhi and his loyalty to friends of ill-repute, that the narrative ebbs and flows. Where do Varun’s loyalties lie – is a constant question that haunts the film, and one that deserves an extended discussion.
The portrayal of male characters caught in moments of exceptional dilemma is endemic in Indian cinema, however, when have we seen a lootera (robber) depicted as gently as Varun? This essay is about this quaint gentleness as opposed to the extreme violence and masochism in the portrayal of such anti-heroes – male protagonists who are neither wholly heroic nor villainous, but a clever combination of both. In an age of controversial (and blockbuster) male anti-hero films like Pushpa, Kabir Singh, Animal (of course), where do we position Varun across this spectrum of ‘faulty’ heroes with major, unresolved childhood issues? Moreover, this essay also highlights the multiplicity of masculinities which Motwane makes apparent in his filmography.
As a student of art history, I find Varun’s links with the black market and rampant smuggling of Indian antiquities, immediately post-independence, really fascinating. This is also the period when the legitimacy of art collections worldwide was being challenged for being products of colonial loot. Debates on repatriation were rife in the aftermath of the bloody partition of the subcontinent. It is precisely at this vulnerable moment that this gang of smugglers thrives with a fairly straightforward modus operandi – Varun and his accomplice Dev pose as archaeologists interested in digging a part of the land owned by the local feudal lord. After gaining some trust and insight into the valuable items held by the latter, they report these details to their ‘uncle’ (next in command) who then plots a fake raid led by the Government of India, seizing all antiquities. This is also symptomatic of the widespread confusion surrounding ‘who’ is acting as the Government of India at this time. A shift from monarchy to democratic political system entailed this kind of facelessness and a lengthy chain of command which a centralised governance network demands.
In many ways, Varun is a product of the appalling confusion and loss of belonging which marks this tumultuous period. Constantly on the move, living multiple identities, his life is akin to a shadow – devoid of any real substance, barely legible, and untraceable. In this shape-shifting world, Pakhi is Varun’s first and only encounter with reality – of the intensity of human emotions, of being a recipient of someone’s deepest affections. The film revolves around Varun’s face-to-face encounter with the biggest trickster of all time, love. ‘Men in love’ features as a popular social media template for content revolving around the ‘other’, notably softer side of the otherwise sakht launda (stand-up comic Zakir Khan’s euphemism for a tough guy). Similarly, Varun in love is a man caught off guard. Trained since childhood to have a keen eye for the most exquisite and precious art ever made, he instead finds himself bewitched by a living being, for the first time. Varun, who is adept in the art of deception and robbery, is in utter disbelief as he discovers the rhythmic pulse to which his heart beats – his inner desire to paint a masterpiece, to visit the picturesque lake nestled in the Himalayas, Chandratal. Painting classes between Varun and Pakhi, the locus of their romance, opens his eyes to a new world – one where he does not need any formal identity, one where he can dare to dream what was previously unimagined; the chance at a life of his own choosing. All of this naturally unsettles Varun, and despite Dev’s warnings, he walks headlong into the heart of a perilous romance.
It is rare to show with such simplicity and depth, the undoing of a robber as he falls in love with the subject of his robbery. Lootera reinforces the belief in love’s gentleness which can disarm all the trappings of normative masculinity that society commands. Motwane produces a transformative encounter in the life of a man who had resigned all agency from living. The masterful storyteller exercises his ability to liberate his male characters in a way that the universal humanism connecting all of them becomes dramatically conspicuous. In his recent Netflix web series Black Warrant (2025), based on Sunil Gupta and Sunetra Choudhury’s non-fiction book (Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer), Motwane explores the all-male space of Tihar Jail in the 80s. By delving into the lives of the jailers and inmates, the series opens up multiple possibilities and manners of being in the world – muddling up all distinctions between what ought to be manly and unmanly, criminal and lawful. Likewise, Varun in Lootera, finds himself in this multivalent zone where criminality and humanity look eye to eye, becoming nearly interchangeable.
Cover Image By Balaji Motion Pictures & Vikansu Tomar from Wikipedia
