luck(review)

WANTED
A Screenplay writer for director Soham Shah who could double up as a dialogue writer. The writer should be able to give shape to Soham’s unique ideas as well create interesting characters for it . He should also be able to write realistic lines which should take away from the boredom of heavy duty lines as felt by the tortured audience of Luck .

CONFUSED IDEOLOGY
This was the first think that came into my mind as I was watching Soham Shah’s Luck . Soham Shah is someone who has great eye for visuals as his scenes are extremely well shot . He also has unique ideas too . But this is where he gets stuck at , he doesn’t know where to go from here , How to make the idea into a viable 2 & half hour movie ..
The film opens well with a superb train sequence which introduces Sanjay Dutt’s character Moussa ( ya I know he had the same name in Gupta’s movies , infact Shah seems to have been heavily inspired by Gupta’s school of cinema which prefers style rather than substance ) . Post this excellent sequence & Moussa’s introduction, the movie goes on a downhill . Too much time is spent on introduction of the other charcters & none of them are interesting enough to hold the audiences attention thanks to inept writing & kiddy dialogues which takes the audience for a ride Add to that are the many loopholes in the screenplay .Sample this Ravi Kisshen is a dreaded criminal who is sentenced death penalty . But is released by the authorities when he is lucky to escape the hanging as the hanging rope slips away . Now How cool is this , which judiciary does so , release a criminal who has killed many people because he is lucky . The film has many more such childish piece of writing .
I felt things might change once the real action of human betting starts . Now a theme of human betting is unique & Shah could have used it to a more darker & grim end . What he ends up doing with it is giving it a more 80’s action kind of structure where there is a hero , side characters & a villain . There are even old Hindi Cinema formulaic elements of revenge , twins etc used in the script .Add to that , is the shoddy climax( Shah had done the same in Kaal with the climax , a clear writing deficiency) which is the lowest piece of writing that one has seen in this movie so far ,where Imraan challenges Sanjay . It takes the movie to a new low & shows Soham didn’t know where to go , whether to follow the sophistication of multiplexes audience or go for the single screen which loves the 80s kind of treatment . In short , he didn’t know where to head as far as screenplay writing is concerned .So he decided to mix both the elements to make a kichdi , a not so tasty one I might add . Soham Shah should have either gone for a kickass action fun movie or a grim one . He follows both & falls badly
Shah is not the first one to fall into that trap , remember Tashan which had a great first half but ended up making a bad second half in order to please everyone. We all know what happened with Tashan . It is indeed surprising at a time when unique & well written movies like Aamir , A Wednesday has done extremely well earning money as well as praise from the critics, Shah decides to go back revisiting the 80’s perhaps the worst time of Hindi cinema as far as writing was concerned with the exception of a few .

BORING DIALOGUES
‘mai khareedhta nahi , sirf bhare mai leta hoo’
‘mujhe paiso ki nahi sirf tujh jaiso ki zaroorat hai’
‘biz dino k liye tu mujhe apna luck bare pe dede’
‘laxmi tika lagani aayi hai aur tu eid ka chand bana hua hai’
These are one of the many filmy lines that you get to hear in this movie . In fact it stays in the movie throughout with every character speaking the same language so much so that beyond appoint it starts to irritate you . What is also there is an entire Soham Dictionary on luck as a concept with the same 80’s style of writing .It was almost as if Mr Shah is writing a thesis on Luck & wants to acquire a doctorate on the subject . Well , I have to say that I had no choice but to call him Dr Soham Shah after the irritation the Dialogues had caused to me hoping I could escape the headaches such lines were giving me . But alas , the lines kept on coming as if he was enjoying the torture that he was giving to the audiences .
A word of advice would be to take admission in the Imtiaz Ali school of dialogue writing whose refreshing & relatable lines can take even a water-thin plot to a new level . So go & Watch Jab We Met Mr Shah & be the first to catch Love AAj Kal as well . You need it boss .

CONFUSED ACTING
Great performances are the key to a thriller’s success . Sometimes the caliber of the actor takes even an average thriller to a new level . Examples of this fact are movies like Khakhee ( AB, Akshay Ajay , Atul ) , Dus ( Sanjay , AB Jr , Pankaj Kapur ) , Gulaal (the entire cast) . These films show that good acting is a key to a thriller’s success .
But in the case of Luck , Confused scripts lead to confused acting . Shah doesn’t seem to be a guy who has great control over his actor’s performances . So you get to see a disinterested Sanjay Dutt who looks like he was mouthing the dialogues in sleep . You could see his eyes not emoting at all , just mouthing the lines with a need to go home quicky attitude . Now this is the 2nd time in a row after Kidnap we have seen him like these . If you are not interested , don’t do the movie , why waste so much money for bad acting . Poor Soham might not have the guts to tell him so after his first movie in Kaal hasn’t worked , he needed a good actor .Mr Dutt seems to be more interested in the elections rather than acting . I hope this is not the case as it will be a pain to see a good actor like him waste his talent for political gains
Add to this is Imran who gives strange expressions ,trying too hard to look tough . In fact his expressions remind you of the PSII game boys characters mechanical expressions . Imran still has a long way to prove himself as an actor & that Jaane tu…. wasn’t an effort due to Abbas Tryewalla’s brilliance . Shruti who looks scorching hot in this movie until she opens her mouth to say some dialogues , she is a superb singer though . Mithun‘s character is the most underwritten yet he is okay , Danny is good , but he is the saddled with most of all those filmy lines , so you get irritated after a while thinking – ‘Now what the hell is he going to say’ . The only 2 people who are decent here besides Danny is Ravi Kishen & Chitrashi Rawat . Rawat’s character is the only one after a while who gets to you emotionally as far as Kishen is concerned , there are times he hams . But considering what he plays in the movie , it goes with the character .

HINDI CINEMA’S FINEST SPECIAL EFFECT SCENES
Luck has great action sequences – full marks to Allan Amin & the VFx team . The parachute scenes is quite superb as well as the under water sequence . The train sequence is the best of the lot . Unfortunately Soham keeps the action choreography to a limit & focuses on the story which is the most boring part of the movie . He should have filled the movie with action .
One of the factor that do make the action scenes even more enjoyable are the invisible Vfx or special effect . This Soham Shah movie can at least be proud of one thing that it has the best special effects ever produced in India so far . Look at the under water shark scenes as well as parachute scenes to see the effect of invisible Vfx . I call it invisible because it is indeed hard to decipher that these are Vfx scene . Can’t say the same about the climax though where the standard Of Vfx goes down suddenly after pinnacle heights achieved in the initial action scenes. But Shah should be credited to bring the novelty & realism that we have not seen in Hindi Cinema Vfx or special effects so far

It is well aided by Santosh Thundiyil’s cinematography capturing the beautiful visuals & action scenes beautifully especially the under water ones .
Soham Shah is not a bad filmmaker ,he has great ideas , good technical expertise , his only problems are writing & performances . Now does that make him a good filmmaker , I don’t think so too . Oh I m confused , must be the effect of confusion after watch The Unluck oops sorry LUCK .