Looop Lapeta Review: No Match to the Original!

The concept of the time loop is almost four decades old now, and almost every movie industry is through with whatever theories are available out there. Hollywood produced Groundhog Day in the 90s, with Korean and Japanese movies also trying their luck. Germany was a little late to the game, and Run Lola Run worked because of its modern and experimental storytelling.

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Fortunately, Indian cinema had Aditya 369 (a Tollywood film) in the early 90s – that’s something we had earlier than others. Since then, we didn’t explore the genre that could’ve given us a chance to stand toe to toe with our foreign counterparts. From the last decade, Game Over was one film (also starring Taapsee) – more game-based, and recently there was Manaadu, which asks a good question — “No film ever tells you why the time loop occurred to the lead actors?” Yes! no movie ever gives you any scientific or logical reason for that except for Edge of Tomorrow, and even Maanadu uses a half-baked mythological tale to prove it.

I think it’s the right time to ask this question, and when you remake a 24-year-old film in today’s social media era, you must think through with very modern features of storytelling. Does Looop Lapeta, directed by Aakash Bhatia, ever care about it? No! or does it even justify the source material? The answer is again, No! Firstly, it is too late to remake Run Lola Run, and it’s also terribly adapted.

Looop Lapeta forgets the basic rules of a ‘Thriller.’ It has that very childish humor that will make your head twist. In Run Lola Run, you don’t even get time to look away cause it surprises you with superfast storytelling. Here, Looop Lapeta destroys its soul and manages to create a big spoof out of it.

The story, as we know, is about a girl whose boyfriend needs money. Her so-called great attempts to save him and gain enough money fails, and then she gets another chance to redo it in a time loop. Storyline aside, Looop Lapeta never looks like a crime-thriller, not even for a second. It tries to be a crime-comedy, something which is mastered by British Cinema way back with films like Lock, Stock And Two Smoke of Barrels and Snatch. However, it fails there too, and it fails badly.

Talking about performances, Taapsee Pannu puts to test her magnificent acting skills in a few good scenes alongside Tahir Raj Bhasin, who looks confident in some scenes. However, for the most part, they looked poor, thanks to the mediocre writing. Also, this movie is two hours long, almost double that of the original. The four-person writing team thought that it would be a good idea to stretch a gripping thriller to twice its size.

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Aakash Bhatia tried to invent a whole new genre, an experimental crime-spoof-comedy, and the outcome is a disastrous thriller. Run Lola Run too had a few shortcomings, but it is one hell of an experimental thriller, and it never gives you a chance to point out the loopholes because it runs quick. Bhatia’s remake is no match to the original. There is no thrill because the comedy spoils it, and there’s no comedy either because the childish humor spiflicates it. Watch ‘Looop Lapeta’ on Netflix here.

‘Looop Lapeta’ Rating – 2/5

Review by Sam (@samthebestest_)