Luck (2009)

1 star out of 5

What's it all about?

A bunch of very 'lucky people' participate in a survival game orchestrated by mafia boss, Karim Moosa (Sanjay Dutt), who is on a mission to establish and lead the human-betting business. Instead of 'survival of the fittest', it's 'survival of the luckiest' here. So you have Ram Mehra (Imran Khan), Major Jawar Pratap Singh (Mithun Chakraborty), serial killer Raghav (Ravi Kissen), sixteen-year old Shortcut (Chitrashi Rawat) and Natasha (Shruti Hassan) relying solely on luck to win this bizarre game of life and death.

Direction & Screenplay

Writer-director, Soham Shah, needs hardcore lessons in script-writing. Shah's story and character development skills are zilch and funnily enough, he always ends up writing the silliest climax imaginable. If Kaal was a nightmare, then Luck is the mother of all nightmares. There were no gargantuan expectations from Shah but it was very disappointing to see Renzil D'Silva's name in the screenplay credits. Isn't he the same guy who wrote Aks and Rang De Basanti?

Performances

Another huge disappointment is in store for those who are expecting Shruti Hassan to match her father's (Kamal Hassan) acting abilities. Alas, the young lady's debut is as thanda as it can get. Shruti's flat dialogue delivery and lack of expression is a big turn-off. Oh, and the bikini-scene is total nonsense. But wait, it doesn't mean that she's devoid of talent. Shruti is a gifted musician and she sings her version of Luck Aazma with much aplomb. Imran Khan is another misfit who looks completely uncomfortable throughout the film. He should stick to rom-coms for now; I'm sure there's plenty of time to experiment later. Bhojpuri bhaiyya, Ravi Kissen, and Chitrashi Rawat are entertaining in their silly roles. Sanjay Dutt and Danny Denzongpa bore you to death with their endless lectures about luck and all that, and there's some more guaranteed boredom with Mithun's cheesy catchphrase, 'Koi Shaque?', last heard in J.P. Dutta's Ghulami.

Music

Salim-Sulaiman's compositions are above average but music in an action-thriller is unnecessary. A robust background score would be more appropriate. Amar Mohile does a good job, aptly supported by Hari Dwarak's impressive sound design.

Stunts

A film like Luck needs a good dose of high-octane stunts but Allan Amin's action lacks punch. Full marks for the opening train sequence, however, the underwater and parachute scenes are not very convincing. Spielberg's Jaws did a better job with the sharks and that was way back in 1975. The climax involving a speeding train, a plane and some explosions is a joke, not because of the stunts but because of the actors who are performing them and the Aazma Luck track that accompanies the entire sequence. Do save a few laughs as there is much more in store for you, thanks to Imran, Ravi and Shruti.

FINAL VERDICT

Luck is a big turkey and it's worse than Soham Shah's mediocre debut, Kaal. Bad luck Soham.

Twitsters have their say about Luck:

jun6lee - All-in-all, I was torn between, 'this is quite novel' and 'it could be done so much better, if'...upto the pre-climax that is. This is when it dropped into the pits of hell. The big end-game was just plain lame & made no sense.

shamail - Luck is an awesome movie, after a long time I've seen a Bollywood movie comparable to Hollywood.

ronakjain90 - Luck is a total non-sense movie. Please watch it only if you can digest that.

baxiabhishek - Back from Luck. What the #$%^, such a suck, full of muck, my bad luck, yuck yuck yuck!

filmigirl - This masala lover says: updated take on Gumnaam. Ridiculous but fun - slow start but ending is great!