Jul 25, 2009 11:01 AM
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(Updated Jul 26, 2009 12:47 PM)
Luck is a concept movie, and while the basic concept would work well for an episode of a television show - unfortunately here the audience is subjected to this singular concept being unimaginatively stretched into a two and a half hour long movie.
Luck’s basic premise is inspired by the European movie, 13 Tzameti. But 13 Tzameti focussed on characterisation, the characters desperation, and narrated an intense story. The bulk of Luck is instead invested in building an illogical, mumbo-jumbo central theme about the importance of luck, and how some people are born lucky. On one hand we are expected to believe that characters are born lucky, and then they are also shown to be unluckily stuck in really desperate situations!
But to begin at the beginning, Sanjay Dutt is a Don who has made his millions in the betting business, instead of the conventional smuggling, drugs, arms, human trafficking, etc. He is running a reality show type of contest, for which his sidekick Danny is locating contestants. Danny approaches Imran Khan, Mithun Chakravarty, Chitrashi Rawat and Ravi Kishen - these are the supposedly born-lucky characters, who unluckily need crores to extricate themselves from some dire situation. They all end up participating in Dutt’s ‘Bees Din mein Bees Karod’ contest. Finally the ‘bees din’, seem like a 2-3 days and the life and death contest, also tamely fizzles out.
Story, screenplay, dialgoues are all credited to Director Soham Shah - but these vitals are in fact, conspicious by their absence. Instead of detailing the costumes of characters, the characters would have been better served by a semblance of characterisation. As a substitute, characters just repeatedly strut in slow motion at airports, in stairwells and among sand dunes. By the third time that Mithun and Imran have a psuedo philsophical discussion on a balcony, you want to jump off one. The climax also jerks, stutters and splutters and the 2 surreal ‘twists’ added to try and retrieve the climax, only succeed in making the audience laugh.
Each character is clumsily introduced one after another, when smart editing could have allowed for intercutting and simultaneously telling their stories - but perhaps that is a bad screenplay judgement. Cinematography is consistently good, partly aided by South Africa’s natural beauty. Salim Sulaiman’s 3-4 songs are good, but when the title song is repeated for the 13th time as a background piece - it induces a headache.
On the acting front, a lost and bewildered Imran Khan conveys the impression of having stumbled on to the wrong set. Sanjay Dutt now sleep walks through Don parts. Shruti Hasan looks good, but is completely lifeless and disappointingly insipid when it comes to emoting and dialogue delivery. Chitrashi Rawat and Ravi Kishen do a good job, in their small parts. Danny and Mithun, rise above the script and impart a degree of dignity to their underwritten parts.
In conclusion, Luck can best be compared to a chewing gum - the first few minutes have some juice, but after that it becomes a tasteless and boring exercise. Stay away from this all style and no substance extravaganza.
