I enjoy every bollywood movie for whatever the film maker has to convey and Luck by Chance seems to be one more movie made by a bollywood patriot. If Om Shanti Om was a satire/spoof on bollywood movies, Luck by showcases everything about Bollywood - the double standards, the struggle, the glamor, the superistitions... But what touched me the most was, debutante director Zoya Akhtar showing the 'heart' of bollywood - the advice from ShahRukh to Vikram Jaisingh, the perspective provided by Karan Johar to Hrithik, Neena Walia's practical and selfish attitude towards life, Rolly's disappointment on Hrithik's disappearance. The film actors and media personnel are humans too and even though we give them a demi-god status, the actors themselves are like you and me and go through similar emotions... Btw, the advice about sticking to your friends pre-stardom couldn't have been more apt than coming from the King Khan. Some more thoughts on these later...
The movie is not an extraordinary work of cinema, but its an honest attempt to show a good sensitive story in the backdrop of bollywood. Maybe Madhur Bhandarkar (director of Fashion) can learn a bit about showing the usual 'struggle to success to reality' story with a bit of sensitivity! The movie may not have the strongest written characters but the casting and direction makes up for any flaw in the characterization. Some of the tit bits of the movie which added humor and displays the peculiarities of bollywood which the director ensured included -
- a double standard, yet shrewd producer Rommy Rolly, a star kid whose mother is strict and manipulative coz she knows the ins and outs of the industry, the supportive, superstitious but glamorous producer's wife, a failed actor turned director,
- Saurabh Shukla and his Nand Kishore acting school which functions in a hall of some building and him inviting a yesteryears actor MacMohan to give away certificates
- Anurag Kashyap and him replacing 'murder' for 'khoon'
- Rommy Rolly's insistence on changing the script / character of the movie to retain Zaffar Khan in the movie
Though all these supporting characters take the movie pretty far, the main actors Farhan and Konkana drive the movie till the end. Though Farhan's lack of acting skills fit well into the character of a struggling actor, he seems to show improvement over Rock On... I cannot see him carrying a movie all by himself and without the likes of Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and ever so comfortable Konkana Sen, Farhan would have had a tough task in front of him. Konkana Sen Sharma is comfortable and flawless in her acting and is one actor who can play a girl next door and a struggling starlet with equal conviction. She proves that even for a glamor struck film industry like ours a female actor who doesn't have the face or the bod of a hot supermodel can be a favorite with the film makers and the audience. The on screen chemistry between Konkana & Farhan isn't that convincing but some of their scenes are great - especially the last scene where Konkana thrashes Farhan out of her life and for obvious reasons shows the changing maturity of we indians!
Last but more importantly the final monologue given to Konkana is what changed my opinion of the movie from being average to good... how many of us can say that we are doing something which really makes us happy... I had never thought of this about the film industry but beyond the glamor, money and shallowness, there is a sense of satisfaction that some of them (may not be all of them) get from doing something which each of them really enjoys doing... Every struggling actor, film maker, singer, music composer (and u can add every aspect of creativity profession here), however small roles or parts they play in a movie, television or anything related to the glamor world, somewhere they derive happiness from doing what they really enjoy doing! think about this...
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