Lanka (2011 film)

Plot

Lanka is a modern take on the Ramayana with Sita's life being saved by Vibhishan (Raavan's brother) from Raavan.

The movie "Lanka" begins in the present day Mumbai with Anju (Tia Bajpai) narrating about her past. Jaswant Sisodia (Manoj Bajpayee) is the don of a small town in UP, India called Bijnor. He rules the place and the police and politicians support him. He is in love with Anju, a doctor. Her father (Yatin Karyekar) is the Chief Medical Officer of Bijnor. Anju is actually sexually exploited by Sisodia. Every night after taking drinks, he comes to her house and sleeps with her. She tries to commit suicide but her father stops her. She tries to run away but the house is guarded by Sisodia's men. Her father tries to meet the cops but they don't want to entertain him. Also, we never know how Anju became Sisodia's mistress.

The story takes a turn when Chhote (Arjan Bajwa) enters Sisodia's house. He is Sisodia's mentor's son and Sisodia loves him like his own brother. Chhote see Anju and from the very moment gets attracted to her. He asks Sisodia who she is but he gets no reply. Later, Sisodia tells him to take care of a property near the town. When he goes there, he is beaten up the nearby villagers who claim the land is theirs. Wounded, he fights back later at dawn, killing 7 people. Sisodia slaps him for the murders but then loves him and sees to it that he is left off by the court as innocent. Because of this, the villagers and the local cop, Sr Supdt of Police Bhup Singh (Yashpal Sharma) start making a plan to kill Sisodia.

Meanwhile, Anju goes along with Chhote for her master's exams. After the exams, she requests him to kill her but he tells her that one needs courage to live and not to die. Slowly he starts to fall in love with her. With an inner fight between the right and the wrong, loyalty and empathy, he leaves Sisodia's house and comes and stays at his place. Sisodia, drunk and hurt comes to meet him, fights with him and when he's about to leave, he is shot by an assassin (sent by the cop and villagers). Chhote then protects Sisodia from the firing but gets shot in the back. Sisodia saves his life by taking him to the hospital and vows to take revenge.

In the meantime, Anju who works in the same hospital starts to fall in love with Chhote. Also, Anju's father has now joined hands with a crime branch officer of Lucknow Tyagi (Manish Choudhary) and files a case against Sisodia. Then Sisodia starts taking revenge by killing all the people involved and it ends by Chhote, who is discharged from the hospital killing the SSP in front of Sisodia.

Sisodia comes to know that Anju's father has filed a case against him. He along with Chhote takes him to a brothel and warns him to withdraw the case otherwise he'll make her into a prostitute and sell her in Dubai. Chhote is shocked to hear and Anju's father, who is unable to bear the shock and grief, commits suicide after reaching home.

Chhote, realizing that he seen enough, goes to the crime branch officer Tyagi and files a case against Sisodia. The crime branch officer tells him that he would be termed a traitor by some and righteous by others but whatever he's doing is correct. Sisodia comes to know about Chhote's change of mind and in the night as Chhote and Anju are leaving Bijnor on their mobike, he confronts and stops them. Chhote tells him that he is wrong and needs to leave Anju. As Chhote turns and moves towards his bike, Sisodia shoots Chhote. But after shooting him, he realizes his mistake and goes towards Chhote. Chhote dies in Sisodia's arms. Sisodia then looks upwards to see that Anju is pointing the gun towards him. He begs her to shoot him as he cannot live without Chhote. She shoots him to death.

The movie ends with Anju thanking Chhote for saving her life and mentions that Ram is not required every time to save Sita's life. A Vibhishan is enough.

Cast

Soundtrack

The album features 6 tracks composed by Toshi-Sharib, Gaurav Dagaonkar and Rishabh Shrivastava.

Reception

Lanka opened to mixed response from critics as well as public. Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama rated it 2/5 and added "Lanka has some shining moments." At the box office, the film had a poor opening, as it faced tough competition from other strong releases The Dirty Picture and Ladies vs Ricky Bahl.