Movie Review – Luck By Chance

The movie ‘Luck By Chance‘ is about the struggle in becoming a star in Bollywood, about actors who are waiting for things to happen, about getting lucky by chance. It might seem that this genre couldn’t work anymore – a number of movies have already been made on the same theme, notably Guddi, Rangeela, Om Shanti Om – but Zoya Akhtar along with an excellent star cast manage to do the trick.
Farhan Akhtar plays Vikram Jaisingh who comes to the city of dreams Mumbai from Delhi to become a star. Here he meets Sona, played by the magnificent Konkona Sen Sharma, who has been hoping of becoming a lead actress in an A grade film for the last three years. Taking advantage of her is Chaudhary, played by Aly Khan, a small time producer who has been assuring her of that one big break and in return of which he is sexually exploiting her and assigning her B grade projects. Vikram and Sona start getting closer as they wait for their luck to change.
Romy Rolly (the evergreen Rishi Kapoor) is a successful producer who only works with the biggest stars. He is making a potential blockbuster launching Niki (Isha Sharwani), the daughter of a 1970s diva Neena (the gracious and ever-beautiful Dimple Kapadia). The hero of the film, Zaffar Khan (Hrithik Roshan), is the superstar.
Vikram’s luck changes when Zafar Khan walks out of Rolly’s, film to act alongside Shah Rukh Khan in a Karan Johar film. Rolly decides to cast newcomers and Vikram, who is used to getting what he wants, lands the lead role. Sona is not so lucky as on the same day Chaudhary ditches her. The rest of the film depicts how Vikram grabs this lucky chance and how it wrecks havoc on his relationship with Sona.
Zoya Akhtar has done well on her directorial debut. Her portrayal of the struggles in Bollywood is quite commendable. But Farhan is the one who done really well, he is developing into quite a good actor. He is real, he is believable, simply put he is brilliant. He was already a well established director and with ‘Luck by Chance’ he has become a well established actor as well. Konkona, Rishi Kapoor and Dimple need no comments, for they are always exceptional, its hard to remember a movie in which they have not done well. Luck by Chance also has a number of special appearances by A-grade actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan (though they do not share the same frame), Rani Mukherjee, Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor.
While the acting and direction was been good, the music is a mixed bag. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy could have done better. However, the choreography of the circus song is remarkable. Carlos Catalan’s cinematography captures the right moods.
All in all it’s a good movie, a magnificent outing from the producers of ‘Rock On‘. Akthars on the way of becoming the next big family in Bollywood?

Tadka Movie Meter gives Luck By Chance : 4 Stars