• Friday, January 30, 2009

• Country:

  India

• Language:

  Hindi

• Runtime:

  156 min

2009

The fantasy sellers and the devoted audience, the insane love for Cinema mixed with the eccentric notion of divinity and archaic beliefs; these are the contradictions that keep this world spinning.

The stark reality of living in India juxtaposed with the fantastical world depicted on screen suddenly begins to make sense…

Sona (Konkona Sen Sharma) arrives in Bombay with her dreams of becoming a film star. Wide eyed but ambitious, she does whatever it takes, to make it. She lives on her own in a rented apartment - a luxury for most in this bustling city and spends her time with a motley crew of loyal friends whose lives are also entwined with Bollywood, each one in search of a bigger dream.

Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) has just moved to the city leaving the comforts of his parents Delhi home. He is a mover, he is used to getting what he wants and is smart enough to know when to demand it and when to manipulate it. He is young and handsome, and full of promise. Sona begins to enjoy Vikram's attention and affections; they develop a romantic relationship.

Rolly (Rishi Kapoor) is a successful though superstitious producer who only works with the biggest stars. He is making a potential blockbuster launching the nubile Nikki Khurana (Isha Sharwani), the 18-year-old daughter of 70's superstar, Neena (Dimple Kapadia). The hero of the film, Zaffar Khan (Hrithik Roshan), is Rolly's favorite superstar. He was launched by Rolly and went on to become a huge draw at the box office.

The wheels of fate indeed continue to spin favorably for Vikram, as elsewhere in the industry, havoc spreads on the sets of producer Rommy Rolly's new film. Vikram is called in for an audition and uses this opportunity to the fullest.

The film is about a slice of Bollywood life, in which Kismet plays a huge role. Here, notions of superstition, fate and destiny underline every life, as grand desires and opportunity converge to form strange patterns.

In such an unpredictable climate is success and failure what others define for you or is it something you decide for yourself.

Luck By Chance is a contemporary tale set in a world desperate to escape its own reality.

Maxabout Review

A Bollywood Satire

Luck, they say, is an important factor in the film industry. But talent is equally important. Thoughtfully, Zoya Akhtar doesn’t rely on plain chance in her directorial debut but exhibits immense aptitude while largely highlighting the significance of fate in films.

Luck By Chance is the story of an aspiring actor Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) who comes from Delhi to Mumbai to make it big in films. Sona Mishra (Konkona Sen Sharma) has been struggling for more than a couple of years in B-grade cinema and wants to switch to more meaty roles.

Meanwhile film producer Rommy Rolly (Rishi Kapoor) announces a new project starring popular film-star Zafar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) alongside Nikki (Isha Sharvani), daughter of yesteryear actress Neena Walia (Dimple Kapadia).

The uniqueness of Luck By Chance is the cheeky spoofs it attempts on the functioning of the film industry without exaggerating the outcome (like in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Bollywood Calling ). Luck By Chance has some of the best employed cameos which are not just stuffed in for star-value but go in sync with the script. Zoya manages to pull off satire on several actors who make you laugh at their own expense (notably Mac Mohan, Sanjay Kapoor and Anurag Kashyup). Also the film-in-film setting gives ample scope for several parody pieces on Bollywood clichés.

While Bollywood is essentially employed as the backdrop of the film, it doesn’t form the backbone, with the protagonist’s character-graph taking prominence. It starts with Vikram’s self-assured struggle to get into movies, progresses with his ethical corruption resulting from fame and culminates with his remorse. However, with the rejection of his repentance, the film opts for an abrupt climax where the protagonist suddenly switches from Vikram to Sona. The movie culminates on a pragmatic note much in the Madhur Bhandarkar mould, though it evades such treatment through its run by not getting hard-hitting heavy or regressively realistic.

Nevertheless, Zoya Akhtar comes up with a taut screenplay comprising of some amusingly comic-but-credible characters. The twist in the interval point is especially noteworthy where Sona loses her chance and Vikram gets lucky. The treatment continuously alternates between humour to reality bytes but at no moment gets slapstick. The narrative even covers external factors affecting the film industry comprising of acting schools, drama-theatre, corporate studios to media houses and has interesting anecdotes on each.

Anand Subaya’s editing is crisp and he makes good use of montage mixture at several instances. The production design (Anuradha Parikh) and the costumes (Arjun Bhasin, Aparna Chandra) impart a perfect Bollywood feel to the film. The imaginatively shot opening credit song deserves a special mention for paying tribute to every uncelebrated craftsman involved in the making of a movie. Right at the onset, it defines and sets a perfect mood for the film.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s musical score is engaging though a couple of songs in the second half were clearly avoidable.

Almost every character in the film has grey shades though not glorified to extreme extents. The movie reveals the double standards of industry people though not showing them in an outright negative light. The trivial scene where Hrithik as superstar Zafar is separated from the external world by his car’s glass window is a subtle metaphor for the confinements of stardom. The pre-interval confrontation between Farhan and his friends is another effective scene.

Zoya Akhtar succeeds in extracting perfect performances from each and every member of the cast. And if you think Isha Sharvani can’t act, she is used in the film to that effect. She is not supposed to act but simply look beautiful, which she does. Farhan Akhtar comes up with a natural and confident act and glides effortlessly through his role. Konkona Sen Sharma is as dependable as always and stands tall throughout the film. Rishi Kapoor gets the looks and mannerisms of his Bollywood producer character correct and is exceptionally hilarious. Dimple Kapadia is impressive as a yesteryear actress and the doting mother of her debuting daughter. Hrithik Roshan is decent in his extended special appearance.

Luck By Chance highlights how the film industry give regards to everything else but the story when making a movie and ironically weaves a fascinating story using that paradox.

Trivias

• The scene where Shahrukh Khan walks into a lounge (as himself in the film) and meets Farhan Akhtar for the first time, he is shown to be accompanied by a man of his age. This guy is none other than Mushtaq Sheikh who is Shahrukh Khan's age old friend in real life and has written quite a few books on him apart from penning Om Shanti Om (2007) and also acting in it. In a way he is related to the plot. When Shah Rukh Khan tells Farhan Akhtar that he should not be forgetting his friends from the old times, a message is being conveyed because the superstar himself is shown to be in company of those (read Mushtaq) who have been with him through his good and bad times.
• In his cameo, the actor Aamir Khan makes a spoof about himself. In one of the first scenes of the film, he is shown to be giving this 'perfect shot' for a Rajkumar Hirani film. All so intense and into the character, he returns back to the monitor, only to sound a little unhappy over the way he gave his shot. He and Raju acknowledge though that the subtle touch that he gave to the scene while adjusting his hat was quite thoughtful! All this was meant to be an exaggerated take on things.
• In one of the first scenes of the film, Aamir Khan is shown to be giving a shot for an imaginary Rajkumar Hirani film. This is a nod to the fact that the next venture of both Aamir and Rajkumar Hirani after Luck by Chance is together for the movie 3 Idiots (2009).
• Luck By Chance would go down as the first ever film in Bollywood that boasted of true cameos/one scene appearances from 20 odd celebrities from the film industry, all of whom actually had a role to play in the film. And in most of these cameos, the actors were portrayed in such a way that they would bring a real life touch to the film.
• 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'.
• Ranbir Kapoor in his cameo as himself is a rising star whose stocks are on a high, he is shown to be this sweet talking youngster who is embarrassed enough to be saying no to an old time director and even hails him as his father figure. However, in the moment of reckoning when he has to take a call on signing a film, he comes up with an age old excuse - 'No Dates'. He doesn't say no, he just says - "Let's start working on the film in 2015".
• John Abrahamin his cameo says quite ironically when he mouths the dialogue 'Ab main kuch hatke karna chahta hoon' (I want to do something different) while refusing Rommy Rolly. He had recently done a strange role in the kafkaesque movie No Smoking (2007) and it is known that he chooses the films that he truly believes, he can do justice to. Thus portraying his real self on screen.
• In a casual conversation, a struggling newcomer actor asks an Assistant Director if he can get a chance to act in a Bhatt film because "Bhatts are always giving chance to newcomers like himself", which points to the fact that Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt are reputed of starring newcomers in every film they produce. Also, the actor Emraan Hashmi's name is mentioned when the AD invites Farhan (the newcomer) on the sets saying Emraan is doing a smooch scene yet again pointing at the "serial kisser" reputation that Emraan has created of himself lately.
• The writer/director Anurag Kashyap is playing a frustrated writer, in Luck By Chance. Someone who is ridiculed as an 'Institute' when he tries to write something that defies the Bollywood clichés. The producer also mocks him by saying that he doesn't want to make the movie for a film festival, which is a dig at Mr. Anurag Kashyap whose movies, which mostly get banned in India or struggle to get a good producer, work quite well at various prestigious film festivals (e.g. Black Friday (2004), Paanch (2003)). Anurag is shown as a writer who is forced to do DVD rip offs and not complain when changes are asked to be made, something that cleverly reflects on his career as writer so far.
• In a scene where Sona (Konkona Sen Sharma), while looking at Vikram's photographs, asks Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) who is the photographer and he casually replies "Hai koi Abheet karke" (There's a guy called Abheet). This is a reference to Abheet Gidwani who is the still photographer of the film. He made the publicity stills of the film.