Looop Lapeta review: Taapsee Pannu-starrer Run Lola Run remake is ambitious and competent

If Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run was a laser-focused and breathlessly paced electronic dance number, Aakash Bhatia’s Hindi remake, Looop Lapeta, is a whimsical and colourful funk song, whose frequent changes in tempo invoke an improvisational quality. If Run Lola Run’s major theme was free will versus determinism, Looop Lapeta is all about the power of love.

Looop Lapeta has clearly been made keeping in mind the viewers of the classic 1998 German time-loop thriller. Bhatia throws in a bold visual reference to the original’s redhead heroine as well as a minor hat-tip: a cab company called Lola.

Tykwer’s film follows a woman who gets three chances to save her debt-ridden boyfriend. Each time the boyfriend is shot dead, a fresh loop begins, and the heroine, played by Franka Potente, gets a new chance at righting the wrongs of the previous time loop. Completely in sync with this video game-like plot was the 80-minute film’s kinetic style.

When I had read that Run Lola Run is getting a Hindi remake, I thought it’s a bad idea. Firstly, the film’s biggest USP is the concept itself. Twenty-four years later, why would anybody want to see the same concept transported to India? Secondly, if they stage a Run Lola Run remake here, would the makers replicate the original’s style? If not, what could possibly the right tone for the remake be?

Defying my zero-to-low expectations, Bhatia and his team have come up with an ambitious and competent movie. At least 50 minutes longer than Run Lola Run, Looop Lapeta features additional subplots which some might find unnecessary, but I really enjoyed them.

First thing’s first: Taapsee Pannu runs a lot in the movies, but I have never enjoyed seeing her run this much. She plays Savitri, an athlete, who, after injuring her knee, quit sports, ended ties with her father, and moved in with Satyajeet (Tahir Raj Bhasin), a slacker boyfriend with a gambling addiction in Goa.

Their names immediately signal the spin Bhatia and his co-writers Puneet Chadha, Vinay Chhawal, Arnav Nanduri, and Ketan Pedgaonkar have given to Run Lola Run. While Tykwer’s film hinged on the themes of TS Eliot’s poem Little Gidding, underpinning Looop Lapeta is the Hindu myth of Savitri and Satyaban, wherein Savitra had to bring Satyaban back from the dead.

Satya gets into trouble when he loses a bag of money that he had to bring to his boss Victor (Dibyendu Bhattacharya). Running a restaurant business on the side, Victor is fisting a well-marinated turkey as he throws his catchphrase “if you know what I mean”, implying what he would do with Satya if he doesn’t return with the money on time. It’s up to Savitri then to literally race against time and get her irresponsible boyfriend out of this mess.

The additions to the plot include the bumbling brothers Appu-Gappu (Manik Papneja and Raghav Raj Kakker) who are trying to rob the same jewellery store that Satya plans to steal from. Papneja and Kakker offer some of the film’s most enjoyable scenes.

There’s another subplot featuring the lovers Julia (Shreya Dhanwanthary) and Jacob (Sameer Kevin Roy). Julia is getting married to one Robert, which is among the film’s few try-hard elements that made me groan. Can Jacob stop Julia’s wedding and reunite with his lover?

Also read: Taapsee Pannu says ‘best scripts with female protagonists come to me’, adds ‘I’m not going to be modest about it’

Appu-Gappu and Julia-Jacob’s tracks are intertwined with the main plot of Savitri-Satyajeet. The results are chaotic and mostly fun. Bhatia and his writers knew that they had to bring in a lot extra to make their version of Run Lola Run feel like a movie that can stand on its own two feet. So, they Guy Ritchie up the story. Initially, Yash Khanna’s highly saturated and kaleidoscopic cinematography felt grating, as did the coked-up energy of the scenes, but I slowly eased into the movie, largely thanks to Appu-Gappu and Julia-Jacob.

Movie: Looop Lapeta

Director: Aakash Bhatia

Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Sameer Kevin Roy