Bolloywood has come of its age..long time back. This is just another proof of that evolution. Lootera is one of the best romantic movies made in Bollywood. After Udaan director Vikramaditya Motwane has turned the table upside down and showed his class over a totally different type of movie in Lootera. It is a must watch for all movie lovers. This movie shares the same shelf with "In the mood for love" in my movie collection, along with Baran. I personally admire directors who know how to tell a story. He certainly has that. Will keep an eye on more Motwane classics!If the initial hour of the movie was a casual build up with a sense of suspense, the last hour was intense with drama. Drama unfolds when the two central characters come face to face once again, but this time both facing death in different ways, and thus allowing them to come clean to each other. Although this last part is inspired by O. Henry's The Last Leaf, it is still much more than that. Both Ranveer and Sonakshi did a commendable job to bring the romance alive amidst of imminent death.

Having already read 'The Last Leaf' by O Henry, I had my doubts to its adaptation to a love story, that the story was not, around a time when India had just met its "tryst with destiny". But no worries there. Lootera emerges unscathed. Vikramaditya and his writers have created a story of their own with their own characters in a different time and setting and infused, in this love story, the emotional resonance of O. Henry's. And they did manage to create a cinematic beauty as the lyrical genius of the screenplay poetry met the master emotion love and the climax of the beautiful O. Henry story becomes the redemption of love. The pace of the story might be a problem to many, but I don't think any other pacing would have done justice to the movie. Its pace, along with the time to which the story belongs and its aesthetic cinematography, brings surrealism to the screen as the emotions and anguishes lingers in your heart like a beautiful dream just dreamt. The cast is good. Ranveer Singh seems to have done justice to his role, though sometimes I was under the impression that he needs to work on his dialogue delivery. Sonakshi Sinha is marvellous bringing the right elements in her portrayal of a naughty, innocent, love stricken daughter in the first half and an estranged and dying beauty in the second half. The music is good and the background score gives ample of time for the sounds of the nature and the stillness of the storm raging inside the hearts to suck you right into the centre of this beautiful dream. Unlike Raanjhanaa that, despite the fanatical love story, was rooted in realism, Lootera is all together a different ball game. Lootera is a story about characters you may have known or may have been yourselves and emotions that you all have felt, but it happens in a world that has a dreamlike otherworldly aura to it where things move at their own slow and languid space, where emotions stir and make ripples that subtly affects the entire canvas, where destiny and guilt dances with each other in an aching crescendo of love. Lootera is an ode to love and it is beautiful!

....so beautiful, soulful music, cinematography that's a class apart and a touching story which moves at a slow but absorbing pace..both Sonakshi and Ranveer play a understated part and we can identify with their helplessness.....the movie could have moved at a faster pace in the second half but i guess then it would have robbed off the feel and the impact. Great job by the director too. ...awe i definitely should have watched this at the theaters.....Bollywood does through up pleasant surprises once in a while!! Watch it at a leisure pace to soak it all up!! i would rate it a 8 out of 10, few movies in Bollywood match the production values like this one!!

'Lootera' opens in 1950s West Bengal, where a new democracy is changing archaic laws and reclaiming princely estates. Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha) is the indulged daughter of an old zamindar (Barun Chanda) from Manekpur. She lives in a sheltered world, but you can see her straining for independence as she secretly drives the family car when she's out of her father's sight. Her world collides with that of archaeologist Varun (Ranveer Singh), who is invited to stay as a houseguest when he's on an assignment to excavate a site on her father's property. Varun and Pakhi are inexorably drawn to each other, even though he knows in his heart that he must leave her someday. The film's plot is inspired partly by O Henry's famous short story The Last Leaf, yet Motwane gives it a romantic, even thrilling twist. There is a lyrical quality to the couple's exchanges in 'Lootera'. Varun and Pakhi communicate with their eyes at the start, then their relationship deepens over shared dreams and long conversations. Pakhi confesses that she wants to be a writer, spinning stories in her Dalhousie home. Varun, in turn, has the soul of an artist and wishes to paint a masterpiece someday. The director establishes a leisurely pace that matches the period, and a picnic scene in particular, where the couple is gently teased by their friends, feels straight out of a Merchant-Ivory drama. In the second half, Motwane opts for muted colours and sticks with those interminably long silences as the couple is reunited under very different circumstances. There is attention to the smallest details in 'Lootera', like the art direction, the lighting, and particularly Mahendra Shetty's intuitive camera that knows just how to capture the lovely landscapes as well as the somber mood of later scenes. Amit Trivedi's beautiful songs and background score add another layer of feeling to the aching love story here. Yet it's hard to resign yourself to some convenient coincidences in the plot, or even the naivete that filters in towards the end. In a film so close to perfection, the small lapses are hard to hide. What you can't find fault in are the pitch-perfect performances. Barun Chanda deftly marries a father's vulnerability with the arrogance of a zamindar who believes he is entitled. Vikram Massey, playing Varun's Dev Anand-obsessed friend, is cheeky and unyielding in equal measure, while Adil Hussain does a good job as a hard-nosed cop on the heels of a criminal. Yet 'Lootera' belongs to its two leads, Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, who do their best work here. Shifting seamlessly from feisty to fragile to bitter, Sonakshi delivers a deeply heartfelt performance that feels mature beyond her years. Ranveer, for his part, brings a quiet sensitivity to Varun, and occasionally a smoldering intensity. Offering a finely internalized performance, he leaves a lasting impression. Moving without resorting to melodrama, 'Lootera' is bittersweet in the end. Formerly an assistant to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Motwane reveals the same command over technique, and a similar love for sweeping visuals. But unlike Bhansali's recent films, Motwane never distracts you with his tapestry.