Thank Heavens, Zoya Akhtar’s much anticipated film Luck By Chance is not a let down. In fact it’s the first decent film of the year. If Zoya’s written the (admirably feminist) story screenplay herself -she’s inherited the better part of her father’s storywriting skills and if the film’s ghost written by papa Javed Akhtar-then he’s certainly saved his most honest, sincere and fresh material in recent years for his daughter’s directorial debut.
Engaging stories about the mores and morals of the film industry are rare in Bollywood for obvious reasons. The idea is a double edged sword that more often inflicts self injuries rather than cutting through unchartered territory. As they say, the world just behind the camera that creates magic on the tinsel screen is better off not seen.
Hence the Akhtar family deserves kudos for taking up the ‘Chala Murari Hero Banne’ theme afresh and rendering it with wonderful characters ( Rishi Kapoor as a garrulous but lovable film director and Dimple as a domineering & calculating the star mom), astute situations and plausible yet interesting plot turns. The lispy Farhan Akhtar and petulant Konkona Sen give good performances as struggling actors in the film industry who get by on bit roles, borrowed money and the false promises made by exploitative, matlabi big shot producers and directors. After years of waiting for the proverbial big breaks to come their way, their fortunes change as do their relationships as friends, unspoken lovers and kindred souls.
The film follows the couples lives as Farhan gets picked for a big budget launch and konkona is relegated to doing TV serials despite being a good actor . Farhan turns into a chaploos smooth operator for a while to make his way up the slippery ladder of stardom till a few wise words by SRK bring him down to earth. Yes, SRK. LBC features cameos by at least a dozen A grade film stars-most of whom are well placed/used as their original selves. The screenplay is peppered with small, sometimes seemingly random and distanced scenes but the film holds together pretty well as a whole ; especially in the second half when Farhan’s success becomes a barrier between him and everything/everybody that helped him reach there.
If LBC doesn’t do really well-it would only be because of its ironical lack of glam-star power and maybe its lacklustre soundtrack. The songs’ lyrics, though relevant to the script are tacky/unimaginative and the music perhaps suffers in comparison to the sparkling screenplay which is contemporary without being casual and relevant without being blaise and cliched.
As they say in Hollywood, Luck By Chance is good ‘property’( script/screenplay). Well worth a two hour investment , too.
Engaging stories about the mores and morals of the film industry are rare in Bollywood for obvious reasons. The idea is a double edged sword that more often inflicts self injuries rather than cutting through unchartered territory. As they say, the world just behind the camera that creates magic on the tinsel screen is better off not seen.
Hence the Akhtar family deserves kudos for taking up the ‘Chala Murari Hero Banne’ theme afresh and rendering it with wonderful characters ( Rishi Kapoor as a garrulous but lovable film director and Dimple as a domineering & calculating the star mom), astute situations and plausible yet interesting plot turns. The lispy Farhan Akhtar and petulant Konkona Sen give good performances as struggling actors in the film industry who get by on bit roles, borrowed money and the false promises made by exploitative, matlabi big shot producers and directors. After years of waiting for the proverbial big breaks to come their way, their fortunes change as do their relationships as friends, unspoken lovers and kindred souls.
The film follows the couples lives as Farhan gets picked for a big budget launch and konkona is relegated to doing TV serials despite being a good actor . Farhan turns into a chaploos smooth operator for a while to make his way up the slippery ladder of stardom till a few wise words by SRK bring him down to earth. Yes, SRK. LBC features cameos by at least a dozen A grade film stars-most of whom are well placed/used as their original selves. The screenplay is peppered with small, sometimes seemingly random and distanced scenes but the film holds together pretty well as a whole ; especially in the second half when Farhan’s success becomes a barrier between him and everything/everybody that helped him reach there.
If LBC doesn’t do really well-it would only be because of its ironical lack of glam-star power and maybe its lacklustre soundtrack. The songs’ lyrics, though relevant to the script are tacky/unimaginative and the music perhaps suffers in comparison to the sparkling screenplay which is contemporary without being casual and relevant without being blaise and cliched.
As they say in Hollywood, Luck By Chance is good ‘property’( script/screenplay). Well worth a two hour investment , too.
No comments:
Post a Comment