Average Movie, Brilliant Performances. Review on Luck By Chance

There are some movies you don’t enjoy much but still can’t rate low because they have some unique points. Luck By Chance is one such movie.

Story :-

Vikram Jaisingh (Farhan Akhtar) comes to Mumbai from Delhi with dreams of becoming a movie star. As he struggles to find a foothold in the film industry he meets Sona (Konkona Sensharma) another struggling actor who has been doing bit roles in movies for the last 3 years. Over time they become good friends and eventually lovers. Luck favours Vikram and he gets a lead role in a movie made by a big producer Rolly (Rishi Kapoor). The reason he gets this role is because superstar Zafar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) abandons the movie for a Karan Johar film. The female lead of the movie is another debutant Nikki (Isha Sherwani), daughter of yesteryears diva Neena (Dimple Kapadia). Vikram knows that this is his big break and he goes all out to make the best use of it. How Vikram’s actions affect his dear and not-so-dear ones forms the rest of the story.

Impact / Technical :-

Luck by Chance is neither a loving spoof like Om Shanti Om nor a hard-hitting Madhur Bhandarkar type revelation. It is something in between and that’s where it disappoints. In a movie-crazy country like ours where we devour filmi scandals for breakfast, this movie had nothing new to offer.

The biggest strength of this movie is its great actors. They elevate average scenes to something unique. The movie has its brilliant moments no doubt but they are too few and far between. The humour makes you smile now and then, but doesn’t make you laugh out loud.

Debutant director Zoya Akhtar shows flashes of brilliance but……well I am impressed enough to look forward to what she makes after this. The dialogues are good and non-filmy. The cinematography is fine. Music was a downer, none of the songs registered an impact. Choreography was no great shakes. Editing could have been much better.

Performances :-

Zoya Akhtar needs to be credited for getting superb performances from her entire cast. It is difficult to pin down one performance as the other surpasses it. Both the leads are complete naturals and underplay their roles beautifully. Specially Konkona who just doesn’t seem to be acting. Farhan shows tremendous progress over Rock On. But inspite of being good, they couldn’t make me feel for them – I don’t know if that’s the fault of the story/director or they lack the ‘star quality’ which makes the audience identify with them.

Rishi Kapoor has perhaps been the most underrated actor of bollywood. Watch him in this movie and you will know why old is gold. Ditto for Dimple Kapadia - as the bitchy and ambitious mom of a starlet she is pure dynamite! Isha Sherwani is a revelation, she plays a brainless bimbo with natural ease. Hrithik is good as the manipulating star though he overacted a bit. And I wonder if I am the only one who found his ‘bawre’ dance and clothes idiotic? Juhi Chawla is sweet as the Rishi’s over-the-top but loving wife. Sanjay Kapoor is another revelation as a failed actor who wants to make it as a director now. The rest of the supporting cast is good in their respective roles.

And yes there are a lot of stars doing special appearances in the movie – less than a minute ones. Shahrukh gets two minutes though and in those two minutes he shows why he is a superstar.

My Final Take :-

For me a good movie is one which I can watch a second time. I don’t want to watch Luck by Chance a second time.