movie-review :"LUCK"

movie-review :"LUCK"

Bollywood is providing a mix of two separate genres of movies this Friday. Incidentally, the two might attract different class of the audience. Anyway, both are trying their luck at the box office while one of them is titled 'Luck'. The other one is 'Perfect Mismatch'. It seems that the television reality shows are entering into the big screen. The specialty of 'Luck' is that it doesn't focus on hero only but moves around several characters. The movie's director Soham Shah of the 'Kaal' fame first decided to cast Shruti, daughter of super star Kamal Hasan. She is starting her career with this movie opposite Imran Khan.

Thereafter he signed on Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakravorty and Danny. Though Shah had completed the script long ago but it took him a lot of time for Dhillon Mehta to finance it. Interestingly, the director along with his trusted cameraman Santosh Dhandiyal finalized the shooting locations in South Africa and Bangkok. He chose the same South African city where Akshay Kumar had played host to daredevil girls! The director completed the movie in 70 days, it is said. He claims that his actors have played their roles without the help of doubles. In fact, even Shruti has dared play her bold and risky stunts herself though after learning the art in Bangkok. 'Perfect Mismatch' belongs to a different class with its star performers like Boman Irani and Anupam Kher known for their specialty along with pretty Nandana Sen.

The movie begins with Mafia king pin Kareem Musa played by Sanjay Dutt challenging an eclectic group to perform stunts for his betting trade. His game involves humans as betting objects who are made to fight their own luck to survive! Every year his trusted aide Tamang played by Danny collects 20 participants for him. They are handpicked from across the globe who have proved lucky. Ram Mehra played by Imran Khan is a white collar youth who is determined to make good Rs 200 million that his father lost in the stock market. Ayesha played by Shruti Hasan has her own agenda.


Mithun Chakravarthy playing Retired Major Jawar Pratap Singh needs money for his sick wife. Here, the script takes a turn. As the luck or rather the bad luck would have it. Shortcut played by Chitrashi Rawat is a Pakistani camel racer girl who dreams of buying a Lexus with the prize money while Raghav played by Ravi Kissen is a serial murderer. The participants are put into extremely dangerous life risking games of luck. The one who manages to win the big jackpot forms the rest of movie. Incidentally, junior artists get knocked-off first and later Imran Khan, the hero, too. As told above, only the lucky one survives. Here, the lucky survivor is none other than villain Ravi playing Raghav.


The movie begins on an exciting sequence when a blindfolded Sanjay Dutt crosses the multiple railway lines with trains running at a high speed. The credit for playing the action scene goes to Dutt and for technical excellence to director Shah. This shows that the movie is a good mix of both a thriller as well as an entertainer. Then, the director introduces the vital element of a Bollywood movie -- romance. Yes, between the hero Imran and the beautiful newcomer Shruti Hassan. While critically analyzing the movie, we come across several flaws. First, Sanjay Dutt is seen gun trotting, not once but frequently and that too in a royal desi dress sherwani (long coat usually worn at the wedding or by princes in their official assignments).

No matter, the director rightly names him Musa who is always surrounded by black-suited bodyguards! Two, the script isn't as tight as required. The director seems to have written in a great hurry, leaving a lot of scope o tie the loose ends. Third, the first half is assigned only to the introduction of the characters and that too in vain but in vain. They are established only in the latter-half. Lastly, the emotional connect with the viewer is missing. This is another matter that Allan Amin has brilliantly choreographed both the initial as well as the concluding sequences. However, he too fails in making the initial scenes enacting stunts look real.

Acting-wise, Imran Khan performs excellently well. However, he needs to improve his expression. Shruti Hassan has tried her best as newcomer but needs time to mirror her character. She is stunningly charming but lacks in dialogue delivery. Danny needs no comment; he is the most experienced in the cast. We wish the director had utilized him a bit more. Mithun is good too. Ravi Kishen has performed very well. Chitrashi Rawat and Snita Mahey as Dutt's team member play very well. Their roles leave little scope for them to prove their worth. Yes, Sanjay Dutt looks charming but the director hasn't dealt well with his dress and frequent gun trotting. He plays stunts too but not as well as our khiladi Akshay Kumar. The director needs a pat to cast the trio of Dutt, Mithun and Danny together for any film after 20 years.

On the whole, 'Luck' looks like trying its luck at the theaters exhibiting it. However, we couldn't let it go without our comment that the director looks like banking on his luck rather than fully devoting himself to his job during the making of the movie. Had he done so, the movie would have hit the box office on its own. Still, a paisa vassol movie.

via:smashhits