Luck by Chance (2009)

When Vikram gets tapped to play the male lead in a Bollywood film, he can't believe his luck. But it may ruin his relationship with his girlfriend.

Director:

Zoya Akhtar

Writers:

Zoya Akhtar (story & screenplay), Javed Akhtar (dialogue)

Stars:

Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor

6 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Farhan Akhtar	...	Vikram Jaisingh
Konkona Sen Sharma	...	Sona Mishra
Rishi Kapoor	...	Romy Rolly
Dimple Kapadia	...	Neena Walia
Isha Sharvani	...	Nikki Walia
Sanjay Kapoor	...	Ranjit Rolly
Juhi Chawla	...	Minty Romy Rolly
Hrithik Roshan	...	Zaffar Khan
Alyy Khan	...	Satish Chaudhary
Sheeba Chaddha
Arjun Mathur	...	Abhimanyu Gupta
Sid Makkar
Pankaj Kalra	...	Raju - Sona's agent
Megha Narkar	...	Laxmi - Dance Instructor
Ashish Sawhny	...	Tanvir (as Ashish Sawhney)

Storyline

Refusing the accept the same fate as her sisters, Tara and Meghna, and get married to a boy from the same Caste, Kanpur-based Sona Mishra alienates herself from her accountant father, and re-locates to Mumbai in order to act in movies. She meets with Satish Chaudhary who offers to assist her in getting a lead role. Years later, all he could manage was bit parts, leaving her frustrated but hopeful. She meets with another struggling actor, Vikram Jaisingh, and both become fairly intimate. When a lead role with Satish does not materialize, and his wife, Pinky, becomes suspicious, she decides to depart. Disappointment and shock also await Vikram when he is candidly told by his friend, Abhimanyu Gupta, that he has no talent and must consider returning back in Delhi to assist his businessman father. It does look like the end of the road for both Sona and Vikram - leaving the question open whether they will continue with their relationship &/or return to their respective homes.

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Plot Keywords:

looking at oneself in a mirror | luck | f rated | title directed by female | chance meeting | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Abhishek Bachchan is someone who avoids controversies, more so if he has to accept a movie that has been rejected by someone else. This is what he does to the character of Rommy Rolly (Rishi Kapoor) in his cameo in the film and politely refuses to be a part of his film. And when he says 'Daddy says Hi!' it brings the real life touch to the proceedings because this means 'End of conversation'

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Quotes

Romy Rolly: Aur is ladke ke kaam ke baare mein, bade bol nahi bolta, touchwood - Volcano of talent. Write my words please - Volcano of talent.

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Crazy Credits

The actual movie shows Konkona winning a new Godrej Fridge towards the end of the movie through a lucky draw. However in the credits, the name goes as Videocon Fridge Guy. While Videocon is another manufacturer of electrical appliances.

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Connections

References Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006)

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Soundtracks

Baawre

• Remix

Written by Javed Akhtar
Composed by Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa and Ehsaan Noorani
Performed by Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa, Ila Arun, Mumay Khan,
Babu Khan, Manzoor Khan and Rajab Khan
Courtesy of Big Music

User Reviews

About luck by chance and chance by luck (or by flattery)

Many films in the last few years have been centred around the Hindi film industry. Some have portrayed it as a bright world, some have portrayed it as sleazy, and some just used it as a way to tell a story. Luck by Chance belongs to the latter category. It is not as much about the industry as it is about young people who try to succeed in it. It is essentially about people who struggle to carve their own niche in some particular profession and the way they do it. In this case, it is acting. This is the story of Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) who arrives in Mumbai to pursue an acting career in the film industry. He starts dating Sona (Konkona Sen Sharma), who is senior to him in the movie business but is still waiting for her big break. The film is decorated by many appearances by actors and filmmakers who play either themselves or some fictional characters, which is an obvious attempt to make the film more realistic (or maybe more appealing?). And these appearances are indeed very lovely. The film's concept of the rise of one young actor is a bit hard to believe considering he has made only one film after all, but it is quite a common standard today. I found the portrayal of the industry reasonably fair, satirically humorous yet somewhat inconsistent (well, any commercial cinema is really not that crazy about real talents as it is about commercial appeal, but filmmakers very rarely admit it). I did like, however, the way the film showed how complicated making one movie can be and how important (or disruptive) media hype can be. It was all nicely put together with a message: never forget who you are and where you come from.

Farhan Akhtar's performance was not completely consistent and although as a performer he is a natural, he fails to register the growth in his character. The film belongs to Konkona Sen Sharma who is as fine as ever in the great role of Sona. She is natural, convincing, and shows the struggle, disappointment, pain and later on the overcoming her character goes through without having to go to unnecessary extents. Rishi Kapoor is quite funny while Dimple Kapadia is wonderful and beautiful as always. Juhi Chawla, in quite an insignificant comic role, is amazing, beautiful and completely charming. Shahrukh Khan gets a brief but very pivotal role, but Hrithik is annoying as the less-witty-more-arrogant film star. All in all, I enjoyed the film for being basically not very negative as, say, Madhur Bhandarkar, would have made it. The story is narrated well and Zoya Akhtar makes an impressive directorial debut because she somehow manages to poke fun at the film industry and yet leave a nice impression of it. I think those who want to become actors will find the film a bit disturbing though. But as I said, Luck by Chance is essentially about people who struggle to carve their own niche in some particular profession, and it does show some ray of hope. Towards the end, the film becomes increasingly more interesting. We see how people don't let failure deter them. On the contrary, we see how they keep struggling indirectly and how they finally come to terms with what they are capable of doing and what they are just not.

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi English

Release Date:

30 January 2009 (India)

Also Known As:

Liebe, Glück und andere Zufälle

Filming Locations:

Aksa Beach, Malad, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$217,439, 1 February 2009

Gross USA:

$356,019

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$4,504,365

Company Credits

Production Co:

Excel Entertainment, Reliance Big Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

156 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color