90% Talent, 10% Luck

I must admit that like so many other girls, I was swooning over Farhan Akhtar after watching “Rock On”. I was waiting to see more of him in Bollywood. That’s the reason I jumped on the first opportunity I got to watch “Luck by Chance”.  

It is a good movie, rocking debut for director Zoya Akhtar, and another feather in Farhan’s cap. The film has all the ingredients of a masala movie, and yet it is not spicy enough to cause heartburn. Everything is just right.  The story progresses at a steady pace and is well executed by the cast. Farhan has done a tremendous job as the not-so-perfect struggling actor. Konkona has done a swell job as usual. Among the others, especially worth a mention are Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, and Arjun Mathur. Although Juhi Chawla was great, her immense talent was totally wasted in that role.  I wonder if Isha Sharvani was acting or being herself…in either case there is not much to talk about her abysmal acting skills! Among the cameos,  Anurag Kashyap, Shahrukh Khan, Hritik Roshan, and Karan Johar got the meatiest ones.

Although this is a great effort on Zoya’s part, this film reminded me of Madhur Bhandarkar’s style throughout. It is usually he who wants to show people “the other side of things” and is one of the best  at it.…be it Fashion (the other side of the fashion industry), Chandani Bar(the other side of bar girls’ life), Page 3 (the other side of the glamour world), Satta (the other side of politics), Corporate(the other side of the big industrialists), and so on. 

Every once in a while I was comparing the progress of the storyline of Luck by Chance to that of Fashion and I found lot of similarities. For example, the transition of Farhan’s character from a simple Delhi boy to a selfish and uncaring star was parallel to the transition of Priyanka Chopra’s character in Fashion.  Also Konkona’s character was a female counterpart of Arjan Bajwa’s character.  

Also, every time I saw Arjun Mathur’s character (Abhimanyu) on screen, I felt that there was something more about him coming, and that he would add a possible twist to the story, but it never happened! He was giving out mixed signals throughout the movie, as if something important involving him was in store.  However, that’s just a minor glitch, and so is the not-so-great music of the film. Other than that, I loved the movie.

Lots of people have been complaining about how they didn’t like the end of the movie. I felt that it was totally justified. In the movies of this genre, it is not about a “..and they lived happily ever after” kinda ending,  but rather, it is about practicality and realism. The end really tied it all together.

All in all, Zoya has done full justice to the story. Not once did I feel that someone else could have done it better.  Farhan is as charming and cute as ever.  Konkona is an amazing actress and simply reiterates that fact. Most of the supporting cast is also “all star”. Apart from Farhan, Arjun Mathur seems like the one to watch out for in the future. He has a lot of potential.  

Overall, this venture is not a lucky success – it is a big scoop of talent sprinkled with a pinch of luck.