Lost (2023)

Lost is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language Thriller film directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and produced by Zee Studios along with Namah Pictures. The film stars Yami Gautam in the lead with Pankaj Kapur, Rahul Khanna, Neil Bhoopalam, Pia Bajpiee and Tushar Pandey in supporting roles. The film is scheduled to release on February 16, 2023 on ZEE5.[1][2] The film had its world premiere at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival on September 22, 2022. [3] It had its Asian premiere at the 53rd International Film Festival of India, Goa. Crime reporter Vidhi investigates the sudden disappearance of a college student. While society associates different theories for his disappearance, what really is the true story?

Lost, now streaming on Zee5, is a full-length feature film that delves into the topic of missing persons across India, and how many of these cases might not be as easy to solve as they seem. The film, directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (whose previous film Pink was a critical and commercial success in 2016), stars Yami Gautam as a crime reporter investigating the case of a missing 26-year-old Dalit theatre activist. Unfortunately, Lost doesn’t quite hold itself together beyond the halfway mark; read on for my spoiler-free review of this new film.

Set in modern-day Kolkata, Lost uses its setting to tie into topics that strongly affect the youth of contemporary India: caste-based discrimination, politics, political influence over the police, and the dangers of activism. While the film features a strong cast who put in decent individual performances, a lack of cohesion lets the story down, and overshadows its attempts to raise reasonable points. The film is largely in Hindi for wider appeal, but does occasionally switch to easy-to-understand Bengali phrases for a bit of locational character.

The film starts off with journalist Vidhi Sahani (Yami Gautam), who sees a woman crying in a police station after filing a missing-person report for her 26-year-old brother Ishan (Tushar Pandey). This draws her into the investigation, which eventually leads to an accusation of the missing man being a Naxalite who got indoctrinated and disappeared to pursue a specific agenda.

Others involved in the case are a charismatic state minister Ranjan Varman (Rahul Khanna), Ishan’s ambitious ex-girlfriend, Ankita Chauhan (Pia Bajpiee), and his sister (Honey Jain) who maintains that despite his beliefs and activism, he was firmly against violence and would never join a Naxalite or terror outfit. Vidhi also receives guidance from her grandfather (Pankaj Kapur) with whom she lives, and maintains a dicey long-distance relationship with her boyfriend Jeet (Neel Bhoopalam).