Movie Review- Loot 2

Movie -  Loot 2
Director - Nischal Basnet
Cast - Saugat Malla/ Dayahang Rai/ Karma Shakya/ Prateek Raj Neupane/ Sushilraj Pandey/ Alisha Rai/ Reecha Sharma

The four jinxed bank robbers are out of jail and straight up in pursuit of the one who put them there. Amidst a whiff of another bank robbery that is in the fray, how will their luck fare this time around?


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Haku Kale (Saugat Malla) is back in Nepal in hopes of exploiting the fuel crisis there that germinated from India's cowardly blockade. Just few months back Gopal Gurung aka Gofle and his gang escaped from prison thanks to a little help from the mighty earthquake of 2016. Haku is itching for some quick buck on the back of this blockade and the prison breakers are itching to track him down. It doesn't take long for them to encounter one another. The fight that ensues is dirty and drawn out - reminiscent of the ones in the prequel. After some luck and some meddling police help in sparing Haku's life, he immediately starts working on his "master plan" of robbing another bank. The rest is a reminder to the audience about the manipulation and decieving skills of Haku Kale.
Loot 2 starts out promising. The witty remarks from Haku do escalate the audience's expectations but those are quickly quashed by the meandering plot. The cast play their part with finesse. Who would shy away from getting a chance to see Gofle (Dayahang Rai) shake a leg to Sundari Ko Man Ma Basne Ko Hola? Karma is sensational as Naresh and so is Prateek Raj Neupane as the menacing Khatri. The banter between Haku and his wife is rib-tickling. But despite all this Loot 2 seems nothing but a nod to the last movie. While these very scenes in Loot 1, when it released back in 2012, offered a pleasant novelty, but now the very same techniques have been tried and executed better by many a writer/director. Also on a side note: Is there nothing valuable worth robbing in Nepal other than banks? Why not Narayanhiti Durbar for a change?
Troll Nepal remarked that Loot 2 burrows heavily from South Indian Action movies, and it does which I'm not a huge fan of.
Loot 2 feels like a reskinning of its prequel. I understand Nischal Basnet trying to turn it into a brand but I expected a little more from this movie than a shadow of its predecessor.

Simple And Charming

Movie : Love Sasha
Director: Prachanda Man Shrestha
Cast: Keki Adhikari, Karma and Asif Shah

A girl returns home for her engagement to an NRN, but love, as it is wont to do, has someone else set for her.

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Sasha (Keki Adhikari) is your run-of-the-mill rom-com heroine.
She asks the hotel receptionist to switch the Delhi time on the clock over the main desk with Sydney's because India and Nepal have mere 15 minutes difference in their time zones.
Quirky yet oddly sensible theories - Check ✔
 She lowers her chin and fondles her hair when she sings because people told her when she was little that it looked comely.
Amusing habits - Check ✔
She counts the number of streams and rivers that fall in the route between Kathmandu and Pokhara because she wants to use it in a cheesy dialog in her short story.
Admitting her oddities and pursuing an artistic passion - Check ✔

Sasha is just returning to Pokhara from Australia when she meets Prahlad aka Pearl (Karma), a photographer as well as a heartbroken anchorage to our heroine. Suddenly we feel like we are in Jab We Met territory. He finds her attitude charming, she finds in him a confidant. Love between them is unspoken but palpable. To concoct a classic love triangle out of it, add to the mix, Sid (Asif Shah) to whom Sasha is to be engaged. He is someone who skirts the gray line and makes you root for Pearl and Sasha.

But amidst the tropes, the storytelling of the movie is nuanced, the crises engaging, the dialogues fresh and the direction controlled. Also it was shot mostly in Pokhara, so plus one for that. Love Sasha is a simple and powerful movie that makes you see love from conflicted perspectives. If you love a simple and quiet movie to while away a weekend, Love Sasha could be it.