Luck (I) (2009)

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.

Director:

Soham Shah

Writers:

Renzil D'Silva (screenplay), Soham Shah (dialogue),

Stars:

Mithun Chakraborty, Sanjay Dutt, Imran Khan

Cast

Credited cast:
Mithun Chakraborty	...	Major Jabbar Pratap Singh
Sanjay Dutt	...	Karim Moussa
Imran Khan	...	Ram Mehra
Ravi Kishan	...	Raghav Raghuvaran
Chitrashi Rawat	...	Shortcut
Shruti K. Haasan	...	Ayesha (as Shruti Haasan)
Snita Mehay	...	Angela
Danny Denzongpa	...	Lakhaan Tamaang
Rati Agnihotri	...	Mrs. Mehra
Roopali Ganguly	...	Major Pratap Singh's Wife (as Rupa Ganguli)
Srinivasa Rao Kota	...	Swami
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Leon Bennett	...	OB Van Director
Snehal Dabi	...	Jiten
Daya Shankar Pandey	...	Passport Agent
Manoj Rajdutt	...	Inspector Patil

Storyline

Born lucky, Karim Moussa takes to exploiting it instead of focusing on studies. Now a wealthy gambler, he decides to recruit about a dozen lucky people to participate in a deadly game of survival. His agent, Lakhaan Tamaang, recruits Ram Mehra - whose father killed himself after losing 25 Crores - and is about to lose everything he and his mom own, and may end up being arrested for robbing an ATM machine; Major Jabbar Pratap Singh - who needs money for his wife's treatment; a camel jockey, Shortcut, sold by her parents for Rs.15000/-, who wants to make it big in life; a returning player, Ayesha, who had already participated, and is back for more; a psychotic serial killer, Raghav Raghuvaran, who miraculously escaped the death penalty. All of the above, including others from different countries, must compete, kill each other, with the survivor netting 20 Crores Rupees in just 20 days.

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Plot Keywords:

luck | survival | shark | explosion | russian roulette | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

31 July 2009 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Suphanburi, Thailand

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£86,635 (UK) (24 July 2009)

Gross:

£86,635 (UK) (24 July 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Indian Films, Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

References 13 Tzameti (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Khudaya Ve - Remix"
Written by Shabbir Ahmed
Composed by Salim Merchant and Suleiman Merchant
Performed by Salim Merchant and Suleiman Merchant
Courtesy of Super Cassettes Industries Limited (T-Series)

User Reviews

This is an average movie

Now here's the thing about action films. Most of them aren't particularly smart, but you're willing to overlook that if they make for a dramatic and thrilling experience. The problem with Luck is that it's neither smart nor spectacular. Sanjay Dutt stars as Musa, a gambling kingpin who's made a fortune in human betting. His faithful henchman Tamang (played by Danny Denzongpa) is entrusted the job of travelling the world and recruiting the luckiest people he can find to participate in a Fear Factor-style series of dangerous challenges, while loaded gamblers place bets on them. Lured by the promise of a fat cash prize to the one who survives all challenges, a motley bunch of misfits – including Imran Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Ravi Kissen, Shruti Haasan, Chitrashi Rawat, and a handful of your staple foreign extras from Colaba Causeway – volunteer to jump off helicopters and enter shark-infested waters. Borrowing his premise and key scenes quite liberally from a handful of films including Spanish thriller Intacto, French cult-favorite 13 Tzameti and Hollywood B-movie The Condemned, writer-director Soham Shah delivers a mangled mess of a picture that fails to engage because the characters are all stereotypes and you really couldn't care less if they lost their lives in those dangerous stunts.To be honest, I can think of many reasons why Luck is a dumb film, and chief among them is the fact that there's more bak-bak than dishoom-dishoom, even though it pretends to be an action-adventure. What's worse, every single character in Luck speaks alike, rattling off metaphors, using the third-person and generally dishing out the kind of filmi punchlines that went out in the eighties. The incredibly gifted Danny Denzongpa is saddled with the film's corniest lines including my personal favourite, a dialogue he delivers to a morose Imran Khan. It's priceless, and the film is packed with such gems. The action scenes are all designed to look so cool, there's no nail-biting tension or even a hint of realism when the characters risk their lives in those dare-devil stunts. In all fairness, only one sequence grabs your attention – the film's opening set-piece in which Sanjay Dutt and a handful of others run blindfolded across railway tracks, dodging oncoming trains is a scene to behold. Constructed from a screenplay that relies too heavily on coincidences to take the narrative forward, Luck is ultimately a tiring watch. Of the cast, only Ravi Kissen succeeds in making a real flesh-and-blood character out of his loosely written part, and Mithun Chakraborty and Chitrashi Rawat do the best they can with their half-baked roles. Imran Khan can't rise above the flawed material which doesn't allow him scope to do more than arch his brows, and camera-friendly newcomer Shruti Haasan delivers dialogue with deadpan expressions. Yet it must be said that at least each of them tries. Unlike Sanjay Dutt, who sleepwalks through his scenes again, without making the slightest visible effort to contribute anything of consequence to the film. Luck is often unintentionally hilarious for the clunky dialogue, and particularly for the ridiculous climax scene which is unquestionably the silliest you've seen in years. Indeed only a stroke of good fortune could save this one.