Soch Lo Movie Review: There’s More to It than What the Title Says

When writer/director/actorSartaj Singh Pannustated that Soch Lo is as mainstream a movie as it could be except for the fact that it’s an Indie film, it intrigued me. And this was not without reason. After all most Indie films coming out in India these days are issue based or ‘offbeat’ in nature and hence I was curious to see what Sartaj was trying to convey. Also the initial promo had given me a reasonably good feel about the movie. But then don’t we all know that promos can be misleading? Anyways regardless of all these thoughts I sat down to watch the movie with an open mind.

Soch Lo begins in a desert as we see a man who has been hurt and left to die over there. We realize that this man has lost his memory and then goes on to loot the people passing by the roadside and thus keeping himself going. One day finally the man comes across 3 people which includes a brother and sister. While the sister Pali ( Barkha Madan ) doesn’t want to do anything with him, her brother promises to help the man regain his identity if he would work with him and thus the man goes along with them. In a freak fracas the man realizes that he was on his honeymoon with his wife after which he mysteriously ended up in the desert.

The stranger who is now re-christened as Baba Adams sets out to look for his wife and also regain his complete identity. Parallely we get to know that the stranger was actually an army man who has an arranged marriage with Riva (Iris Maity) and was on honeymoon with her. Riva apparently wasn’t too happy with the wedding as she had been in a relationship with Basu (Nishan Nanaiah). But in a few days Riva does get close to her husband and decides to accept this new phase in her life. That’s when something strange happens as Riva goes missing and the stranger/her husband lands up in the desert.

The man sets about to look for his wife along with Pali and realizes in his own way that Riva, his wife has probably been kidnapped by her ex-flame, Basu. How does the stranger go about doing the search along with Pali? Does he get back his identity and what happens when he meets Riva and Basu is what the rest of the movie is all about. The very beginning of the movie when we see the stranger left to fend for himself in the desert itself is captivating. The film’s visually stunning in most places and both the desert and the seaside are captured pretty well.

Sartaj with Iris Maity

Sandeep Patil’s cinematography certainly needs to be commended for the ensuring that the film has a rich look and texture throughout. On the other technical fronts also the film certainly scores well. But the lack of a bigger budget shows in places. In particular the action scenes are disappointing, I wish they were better executed. Also since most of the cast is unknown at times some of the actors do appear a bit lost. The back ground score byNitesh Pires is haunting and goes very well with the tone of the film. Thankfully none of the characters break into a song & dance routine, however the soundtrack composed by Charu Mohan and Nitish Pires is reasonably good.

Sartaj Pannu is the life of the film as he does a reasonably good job of pulling off the character of an army man who has lost his memory and is searching for his wife and his identity. He gets the nuances right most of the time.Iris Maity doesn’t look too convincing as she appears confused as to whether her loyalty is with her husband or her lover. Barkha Madan fits the part as someone with a lot of attitude but still follows her heart and goes along with the stranger in his journey. Nishan Nanaiah who has been seen off late in Malayalam movies like Ritu, Apoorvaragametc has done a decent job as Basu. But what is baffling is the title of the movie.

When the movie ends you are left wondering whether the title was actually linked to the ending.But despite some obvious issues the film basically is an earnest attempt by Sartaj and his team as you are focused on the film for a major part of it’s around 110 odd minutes of duration.Which reminds me of Sartaj’s point about the movie being an Indie yet mainstream film and I can certainly agree with him on that front. Considering all odds against which the movie got completed and came out, it’s certainly encouraging indeed. It will be interesting to see what the team will come up with next considering all their experiences associated with Soch Lo.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/soch-lo-movie-review-there%E2%80%99s-more-to-it-than-what-the-title-says/