Here you have another typical bollywood flick belonging to the new genre of power packed thrill, high testosterone elements, exotic locations brimming with big stars!
Shree Asht Vinayak Cine Visiongenerously spent money on the project and hence Soham Shah(Director) is relieved from applying his mind to exhibit the director's craftsmanship. Majority of the big budget movies in Bollywood are all about the extravagent party thrown by high profile producers and director's role is limited to the co-ordinator of the show.
Plot
There are a set of people in distress and they are in dire need of money.
Ram Mehra (Imran Khan) need to take care of his ailing mother and pay of the debt amounting to INR Twenty Crores of his late father. He want to go to US in search of fortune but his Visa application is rejected. Finally, he wants to approach the back - door way to get Visa but that will cost Rs.25 Lakhs.
Major Jawar Pratap Singh (Mithun Chakraborty)need money for the treatment of his ailing wife (Rati Aginihotri).His name is featured first in the title (!).
Raghav (Ravi Kishen)is a serial killer who had escaped from capital sentence as the knot got loosened during execution. Indian judiciary is not having provision to hang a convict again (??? – Great Information! But I am afraid to check the authenticity with any lawyer)
Chakde Girl Chitrashi Rawatis the one who is a specialist camel racing hailing from Pakistan but for some unknown reasons speaking in Mumbaiya Accent (eg - Woich ----). Shortcutis the character's name and she dream to own Lexus and lead a happylife away from camel's “gobar” (Since Chakde, “Gobar" became USP for this girl)
Finally we have Ayesha (towards the end Natasha), character played by Shruti Hassan who has got a need which is quite different from others.
What bind them together ---- They have got the blessing of "Luck". Their luck never favoured them to succeed in life! But - their luck turned out to be a death game when they were identified by the Talent Acquisition Managerof Musa(Sanjay Dutt), Mr. Tamang (Danny Denzongpa).
Musa is the king-pin who is in the business of "investing in luck" of others! Sanju Baba again back with gun toting action surrounded with "Gora" securities.
There is a world of betting where in people gamble on the "Luck Factor" of the people.
All the lucky people mentioned above - were convinced to take part in a series of deadly games organised by Musa - who bet on their success. There are others (Gora, Kala, Chinki ---- all who understand Hindi Dialogues for some unknown reasons) - who are not relevant but hired by Tamang to participate in the deadly game.
What they need to do is to skew the odds and play with the luck factor which is dominant in their life!
The plot is adapted from Hollywood flick "The Condemned". Certain scenes of the movie are straight rip off from "13 Tzametti". Hollywood movie buffs are going to have fun drawing parallal!
Hightlights and Flaws
You have age old Gabbar Singh's Pistol Game , helicopter jump, the underwater sequence with sharks (anyone can make out that they are plastic toys) , train sequence etc. If you are in a mood to let your mind free and assume that all these can happen, then there is a remote possibility to have goose bumps. Allan Amin,the man behind stunt sequences relied too much on the graphics and hence it looks quite artificial.
Romantic sequences are quite flaccid. Accommodating veteran actors and adding right proportion of romance, action, comedy, songs ---- well, it is a task by itself.
I love watchinG Danny after an interval and he did an amazing job! Same with Mithun, Sanju Baba, Ravi Kishen! Danny, Sanju and Mithun are featured together after twenty years. (Jeete Hai Shan Se was the last film featuring them together)
Imran Khan - Nothing much to do! The role was a miniature version of what he did in Kidnap.
Shruti Hassan - is looking quite beautiful. Also, those who are interested in the Bikini Scene (which is becoming a mandatory scene in all bollywood flicks) will have nice memories for sure. She also, sang a song "Azama - Luck the Key" version. We need to see her performance in forthcoming movies to have an objective assessment but ofcourse she got a magnetic screen presence.
Snita Mahey -as Musa's associate has nothing much to do except adding to the feminine screen presence.
In total - the performance of youngsters were totally eclipsed by the veteran actors!
Soham and Rensil D'Silva's- Screenplay is having many interesting dialogues. During the first half, there are many dramatically appealling dialogues that suit to the "Masala" bollywood flicks.
Salim Suleiman's Score suit to the movie. "Azma le" is the hummable score from the movie.
Also, Amar Mohile's background score is enough to produce a necessary impact suiting the plot.
Santhosh Thundiyil- is the cinematographer who captured the visuals! But alas, the quality of his work is alarmingly bad. Especially, the shade used in stunt sequnces, obvious camera jerks during crane shots affect the cinematic pleasure.
Altogether - Luckis all about weaving a story around pre planned thrills. Climax goof - up could have been avoided that had trivialised whatever seriousness left in the movie. There are myriad flaws and to quote a few -
"The girl who lost her leg walks with ease after a “Cosmetic Surgery”
"Anachronisms like theft in ATM scene happens in day light but within two minutes the thief was rescued by someone and by then street lights were on"
I recommend this movie only for those who are interested in bollywood action sequences, dramatic dialogues and powerhouse performance of veteran actors! Above this, I am not blessed with any "Luck"
Frequently used adage movie is "The 'the only thing certain about luck is it's going to change'. We have to wait and see whether the luck will favour the movie makers!
Rating - 2.5 stars out of 5
