Luck (2009/I)

Director:

Soham Shah

Writers:

Renzil D'Silva (screenplay)
Soham Shah (story)

Release Date:

31 July 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Plot:

An underworld kingpin instructs his honcho to recruit people endowed with 'Luck' from across the globe to take part in a series of games designed to test their 'Luck' factor, as gamblers around the world bet on them! |

Plot Keywords:

Skydiving | Gun | Explosion | Train | Jump From Helicopter

Cast

Imran Khan	...	Ram Mehra
Danny Denzongpa	...	Lakhaan Tamaang
Mithun Chakraborty	...	Major Jabbar Pratap Singh
Sanjay Dutt	...	Karim Moussa
Shruti K. Haasan	...	Ayesha
Ravi Kishan	...	Raghav
Chitrashi Rawat	...	Shortcut
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rati Agnihotri
John Leon Bennett	...	OB Van Director

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Certification:

Ireland:15A | UK:15 | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

Suphanburi, Thailand

Company:

Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision

Movie Connections:

References 13 Tzameti (2005)

A spineless thriller without any basic script.

Indian Cinema has unarguably proved its mastery over the genre of drama and comedy in the past decades. But if we look upon the thrillers made in our part of the world, then there is still lot to achieve as per the International Standards. "Luck" also falls in the same category of thriller movies based on weak scripts relying heavily on its huge star-cast and exciting action sequences. In fact, here we have a movie, made only on an idea of human life being used in the betting mafia and has no basic script heading towards any particular event.

The movie starts off excitingly, introducing Sanjay Dutt as the Don of betting trade participating in a dangerous death race himself. And then the background narration (by Danny) unfolds the entire star-cast with their different individual sequences. Actually, these are those needy people, chosen to play the dangerous life taking games arranged by the betting Don. But surprisingly this introduction chain exceeds its desired limits and continues till we reach the Intermission. In short the first half is only about the Introductions and has nothing in terms of story or content.

So, all expectations are set for an engrossing second half, showcasing a grand thrilling event and a great exciting climax. But sadly nothing goes as expected and we are only made to witness some unexplained and uninteresting sequences leading to nowhere. Usually in a script where few characters are brought together for a purpose, everything moves towards a specific event or a plan which has a great excitement value. But in "Luck", there is neither any striking spectacular event nor a crescendo kind of impact, building towards its climax. The writers are only interested in talking about the idea of betting mafia playing games involving human lives and that's it.

In order to give it an International look, director Soham, emphasizes more on the glossy and technical aspect of the project and less on its lackluster content and storyline. As a result, the movie based on a groundless script, gives no opportunity to any artist in particular to prove his art. In fact, one wonders why veteran artists like Sanjay Dutt and Danny opted for this movie with no great roles written for them. Sanjay, though looks great as the Don, has got nothing new to deliver other than the usual Bhai stuff. Danny is simply, mis-cast as the Sutradhar or the person responsible for getting every player together.

Imran, with a great fan following should be more careful in choosing his projects as this will be his second movie in a row, which fails to impress. Shruti Hassan, who comes just before the intermission, has got great screen presence, but should work on her dialogue delivery as she sounds uncomfortable speaking her Hindi lines. And there was really no need of her Bikini act in the movie as "the script never demanded it".

Mithun Da is completely wasted. He unconvincingly uses his famous dialogue "Koi Shaque" from "Ghulami", which simply fails to generate the similar impact as in the original. Above all, both Ravi Kishan and Chitrashi are able to impress the most with their splendid performances. Among the songs added for some glamour value, only "Aazma Luck" impresses to some extent. Background score on the other hand serves the purpose perfectly. Cinematography brilliantly captures the well directed action sequences both in the air and below the water. But their brilliance goes in vain, in absence of a good storyline and captivating writing.

So, for thrillers fans, the movie may be below their expectations, with no great excitement or special unique points to mention here. And if you are a real movie buff then you surely must have seen many better flicks in the same genre before.