Typical masala entertainers are the hot properties for the Bhojpuri cinema industry these days. Produced by Monika Sinha and Sanjay Sinha and directed by Ravi Sinha, LOFER is the new addition to the list. The film boasts of an impressive star cast Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’, Pakhi Hegde, Monalisa and Awadhesh Mishra. Does the movie justify the talents of such an impressive and much talked about team? Does it make the audience satisfied when they leave the cinema halls?
LOFER is the story of Arjun Singh(Dinesh Lal Yadav), her wife(Monalisa) and her two children who make a happy family together. Mahendra Singh (Awadhesh Mishra) and his son Virendra Singh are the two relatives of Arjun who have an eye on the money and properties of Arjun. The story takes a turn when Pooja is killed by the hooligans sent by Mahendra Singh. Now enters Disco Rani(Pakhi Hegde), who is a spy of Mahendra Singh in Arjun’s house, but slowly turns into Arjun’s loyal owing to the love shared between her and the two kids. Agitated by Rani’s turnover, Mahendra Singh gets Arjun killed and now intends to kill the kids. There enters Shankar (Dinesh Lal Yadav), look alike of Arjun who is then contracted to save the kids and Rani. But when he comes to know the truth, he agrees to save the kids without any money. How he succeeds in saving the kids forms the rest of the story.
The movie sets itself quite impressively in the first 15 minutes of the start. The confrontation between Nirahua and Awadhesh is very strongly presented and makes the audience excited with the going on. But, the pace of the movie slackens afterwards and the attention is drawn more towards the songs and comedy. The first 35 minutes of the movie consist of 4 songs, which hardly make the story to proceed. But the second hour of the movie engages the audience again with the murder of Monalisa and the entry of Pakhi to the home. In fact, the scenes after Pakhi enters the screen take the movie to a new high and the post interval part is highly anticipitated. The post interval part starts off well and with the introduction of Arjun’s look alike, the movie goes impressively. The scene where Nirahua copies Amitabh Bachhan of Amar Akbar Anthony, is humorous and will be appreciated.
The movie’s main drawback lies in its length. The first half is really long drawn and affects adversely to the pace of this 2.45 hrs long movie. The movie could have been done without two or three songs, for the sake of its pace. The “Gajodhar Bhayya” scenes are entertaining but they really have no connection with the movie.
Direction-wise, Ravi Sinha looks a little bit confused as how to go along with the script, as the script seems to be a concatenation of some hindi movies, to be said mildly. The cinematography is not quite up to the mark. Music by Rajesh Rajneesh is hummable. “Ae ram ji” and “Pyar Kare” are pick of the lot. Choreography is routine, though it must be said that choreography of the song “Kothariya Mein” was awful.
Acting wise, Dinesh Lal Yadav is good while playing the role of Shankar, the look alike. He looks convincing while playing the role of the lofer, and his part of dialogues in the second half will bring the house down. Pakhi Hegde is the show stealer, to say the least. Playing the role which had some grey shades, she performs beautifully. Her confrontations with Awadhesh Mishra in the first half deserve special mention. Monalisa does not have a full fledged role but she does well to play her part. Awadhesh Mishra suffers mainly due to sloppy characterization though he delivers well. But he must take care that he does not repeat himself. The rest of the cast are strictly okay. It will be a pleasant experience to watch Durga Prasad Mazumdar DADA and Rajkumar R. Pandey sharing the screen with Nirahua for a while.
On the whole, LOFER is the masala entertainer that will provide entertainment to the audience in bits and spurts. The length of the movie is a major hurdle in its going on. As per box office, the movie has got to a good initial owing to the star quotient of Nirahua and Pakhi Hegde, but its prospects will narrow down as the week progress and moreover, new Bhojpuri movies are in the line to be released.
