Luck

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 24th July, ‘09
Time : 130 minutes
Director & Co-Writer : Soham Shah; Co-writer : Renzil D’Silva; Music : Salim-Sulaiman
Starring : Imran Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Sanjay Dutt, Danny Dengzopa, Shruti Hasan, Ravi Kishan, Chitrashi Rawat
There used to be this PJ in our college days, the type that comes on 9X’s ‘Bakwaas Band Kar’ these days.

“Ek baar char ande (eggs) fall from the top floor of a very tall building (Empire State, if you so please). Girte, girte, who sab zameen par gir padte hain. Saare toot jaate hain bas ek ande ko kuch nahin hota. Ek scratch bhi nahin aata. Batao kyun ? Kyunki Jaako Raakhe Saayan, Maar sake Na koye…”
That PJ about sums up the film and despite copying from some very good films like 13 Tzameti and detective stories like Byomkesh Bakshi’s ‘The Porcupine Quill’, they’ve still managed to make a hash of it. A hi-adrenalin first half gives way to an increasingly implausible and convoluted second where unnecessary love, revenge and jealousy angles detract from the main, simple storyline, which I wish they’d left alone.



A betting syndicate, run by Sanjay Dutt, ferrets out lucky people (via a slightly bleached looking Danny Dengzopa) and then makes them go through various death defying feats, in which only the survivors win. The first half still manages to hold it together as we find out these ‘lucky’ people, we play some funny games including the one with the lighter, we find out what are the different compulsions which are making people accept to be a part of this enterprise etc. Along with the sub-continental lucky ones, there are also some foreigners added in (some of them strangely speaking Hindi) but these are only as ballast.

Some of the little inconsistencies that made me cringe
• Why was a serving Major-General having to go to private hospitals and cough up huge amounts for an operation on his wife ? Haven’t the producers heard of Command Hospitals ? They’re free…it’s a minor defect but one that could so easily have been avoided.
• The smell of blood will make sharks go into a feeding frenzy and make all converge, making the rescue act we were shown well-nigh impossible
• The last set-up, was just too silly and too filmy.
• The end destroyed any shreds of credibility that had remained thus far. Basically, the director and scriptwriter fell in love with some characters and ensured their survival and well-being against all odds. Most of the limited audience in the hall was laughing at the end and I’m sure that’s not the desired response in an action thriller

Imran acted decently, despite some awkwardness in the unnatural dialogue while flirting. Sanjay, Danny and Mithun all reconfirmed their screen presence. The little package from Chak De, Chitrashi Rawat, continued to entertain. Ravi Kishan provided some of the funny, psycho type moments, especially the hilarious ‘itna sannata kyun hai bhai’. Shruti has a mixed review, she’s undoubtedly good-looking and has thankfully taken after Sarika in this department, but her dialogue delivery is a bit forced. Plus her role was not clear, was she meant to be a tough cookie or a softie ? Again, not clearly sketched out by the film makers, probably not her fault and so more evidence needed on her.

I know what happened here. The makers felt compelled to throw in distracting elements – love songs, item numbers, silly sub-plots and a farcical in their desire for commercial gain. They could’ve achieved far more success by just keeping it simple.