Engineer Bhaskar Joshi, on his way to Kutch-Bhuj to showcase his new venture, gets stranded with a flat tyre and accepts a ride from a stranger who is hiding a dead body and a gun. When a police officer's wife also hitches along, Bhaskar is trapped in a moving car with a killer he cannot afford to provoke. What follows is a nerve-wracking blend of comedy and suspense as he hunts for a way out.
Locha Laapsi takes a lean premise and rides it hard. Bhaskar Joshi, an engineer heading to Kutch-Bhuj to pitch his venture, loses a tyre in the middle of nowhere and accepts a lift from the wrong stranger. The driver is carrying a corpse and a gun, and soon a police officer's wife climbs in too, leaving Bhaskar trapped in a moving room he cannot escape. Director Sachin Brahmbhatt, working from Maulin Parmar's script, builds the whole film around that confined dread and the nervous laughter it produces.
Malhar Thakar anchors it as the everyman caught in someone else's crime, and the road-trip comedy-thriller mix is where the film lives or dies. Audiences landed it at 7.1 on IMDb, with the warmer reactions praising the suspense, the cinematography and the way tension and humour keep trading places on the highway. The colder ones are just as loud. The comedy is pitched so high in stretches that the overacting flattens the very moments meant to land, and the thriller keeps its car moving on convenient turns rather than earned ones.
The film also carries a quiet weight offscreen. Vaibhavi Upadhyay, who plays Mishruta, died in a road accident in 2023, and the release became one of her final screen appearances, a fact that colours every scene she is in. Commercially it never caught fire, gathering only a few crore in its opening week against modest hopes. What remains is a watchable, uneven ride that is best when it trusts silence and worst when it shouts for a laugh. Go in for Thakar and the premise, not for a tidy payoff.
Verdict
A confined-car comedy-thriller that grips when it stays quiet and grates when it overplays the jokes, carried by Malhar Thakar and a sharp premise.
What works
- Tense single-location premise that keeps you guessing
- Malhar Thakar grounds it as a believable everyman
- Comedy and thriller tones switch effectively at their best
- Cinematography makes good use of the Kutch highway
What holds it back
- Comedy is often overplayed to the point of tiring
- Thriller plot leans on convenient turns
- Tone stays uneven across stretches
- The payoff underwhelms after the build-up
Cast & crew
Writers: Maulin Parmar, Sachin Brahmbhatt
Music: Rahul Munjariya
Cast: Malhar Thakar (Bhaskar), Chirag Vohra (Shashvat), Vaibhavi Upadhyay (Mishruta), Chetan Dhanani (Raghuveer), Nilesh Pandya (Gantra)
Producers: Jeegar Chauhan, Malhar Thakar
Watch the trailer
Play the official trailer on YouTubeMore from Sachin Brahmbhatt
More Comedy Gujarati films
Frequently asked
Is Locha Laapsi worth watching?
A confined-car comedy-thriller that grips when it stays quiet and grates when it overplays the jokes, carried by Malhar Thakar and a sharp premise. Kevu Che rates it 3.5 out of 5.
What is Locha Laapsi about?
Engineer Bhaskar Joshi, on his way to Kutch-Bhuj to showcase his new venture, gets stranded with a flat tyre and accepts a ride from a stranger who is hiding a dead body and a gun. When a police officer's wife also hitches along, Bhaskar is trapped in a moving car with a killer he cannot afford to provoke. What follows is a nerve-wracking blend of comedy and suspense as he hunts for a way out.
What is the IMDb rating of Locha Laapsi?
Locha Laapsi (2024) holds an IMDb rating of 7.1 out of 10.