Luck By Chance

Luck by Chance is one of the few films that have been so intelligently made that it simply makes you fall in love with it at the first shot. Well, after reading so many reviews about the film, I couldn't wait for it and watched it and I loved it. Luck By Chance is the story of two struggling actors Sona (Konkana Sen Sharma) and Vikram (Farhan Akhtar). While Vikram gets a big break in a Romi Rolly (Rishi Kapoor) film after Zafar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) backs out and he becomes a big star, Konkona remains what she was, a B-Grade actress. Both of them make compromises to get whatever they want though not morally correct. The beauty about the film was that it was not preachy and makes subtle comments that there are no free lunches, everyone works for himself and luck does play an important part in our lives. While we have seen Madhur Bhandarkar's realistic cinema, this film by far has been the most accurate and believable portrayal of our Hindi film industry, how things work, how difficult it is for a newcomer to be in a film. Zoya Akhtar's story and screenplay are absolutely brilliant as Rajeev Masand says that it needs a repeat viewing to understand its finer nuances. Music though is a bit of a letdown, though I loved Yeh hai Zindagi and the background score. Baware looks colorful. And, and the performances, well I could find no flaws at all here. Konkana is brilliant as always, she is a terrific actress. Dimple Kapadia is stunning (watch her in that scene where she says how she was abused), Farhan is good but Rishi Kapoor as the producer steals the show. Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Kapoor, Isha Sharvani, Aly Khan deliver commendable performances, even the minutest of roles of Lakshmi (Sona's friend) and Abhi (Vikram's friend) are good. Dialogues from Javed Akhtar are superb (Crocodile in a chiffon saree!!)

The film has a lot of cameos from various big stars - Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bacchan, Ranbir Kapoor, John Abraham, Karan Johar, Vivek Oberoi, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Akshaye Khanna, Anurag Kashyap, and Manish Malhotra.

There were so many great scenes though I am writing a few of them here, the list, however, is not exhaustive though!

1. Anurag Kashyap as the writer of Dil Ki Aag where he says murder kar dete hain when Niki is not able to say khoon :D

2. Shah Rukh when he says to Vikram that only friends who know you before your success matter and Karan Johar when he explains how does a newcomer gets a role.

3. Hrithik and the street children, beautiful camera work showing two sides of the divide.

4. Rishi Kapoor when he breaks down after Zafar refuses to do his film.

5. Vikram when he first meets Neena (Dimple Kapadia) at a party.

6. Konkana in the climax.

7. Yeh hai Zindagi where people from the chaiwallahs, tailors, watchmen, painters, spot boys, make-up artists, helpers whose contribution is never recognized.

Thank God that we still have people like the Akhtars- Zoya, Farhan, and Javed who actually know to make a film. It has average box office collections but when terrible films like Ghajini make 200 crores, it is a bit disappointing though that audiences are still not ready for some good quality cinema. But great work Zoya! Anurag Kashyap in his blog calls it the best debut film in the last 10 years, though I will still give that to Dil Chahta Hai. Watch and watch it again. ****1/2.

P.S.- Though I do not understand the exquisite details of filmmaking, these are my views and you may disagree but still who cares, I loved it. :)