OYE LUCKY CHAMAK GAYA TU!!!

FILM: Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!
DIRECTOR: Dibakar Banerjee
CAST: Paresh Rawal, Abhay Deol, Neetu Chandra




In the world of stage acting it is a very common trend that one actor plays more than one unrelated or related characters. Its a common thing in cinema that father and son being played by the same actor, like Amitabh Bachchan did best in Aakhri Raasta. But in Bollywood its rarely seen that one actor plays two or more characters who are not at all related. Paresh Rawal plays three unrelated characters here. Some might term this as a producer's style of reducing budgets but considering the producer is as liberal as Ronnie Screwala from UTV it can be given more of an artistic explanation. By playing three different characters, Rawal not only brings in additional comedy but also proves his versatality. But thats not it. There is something more to it as I will explain later.

Our male protagonist is Lucky, played brilliantly in his career best performance by Abhay Deol. I always thought that he is better than his father and brothers when it comes to performances. Lucky is a street smart(actually much more than that) guy with an unimaginably high amount of optimism. Along with that optimism he has got an intelligent mind to achieve what his high optimism has made him dream of. The movie shows a young lucky of 15 years to start with. Paresh Rawal is the agressive and "beat the child" kind of Punjabi father. The 15 year old Lucky is impressively played by Manjot Singh. Situations around young Lucky force him to take wild steps to achieve the smallest of wishes he has. So from then starts his bizzare and weird journey to achieve everything he wants.

Goga Bhai is a typical north Indian don: moneyed, powerful and soaked in the cheap human desires or money and lust. He is engaged in all sorts of illegal activities and is fearless as his connections range from the havaldar to the commissioner. Goga Bhai is again played by Paresh Rawal. Lucky gets to work for him and he steals for him. Under the banner of Import-Export Lucky intelligently, very intelligently, keeps making robberies one after the other and Goga Bhai is very happy with him, not until.....

Dr.Handa on the other hand is a spectacle clad veteranarian. He wants to open a restaurant. Again played by Rawal, Handa befriends Lucky and convinces him to fund his wish. His wife is played by Archana Puran Singh. They are very good to Lucky, like family, not until....

Sonal played by Neetu Chandra is Lucky's love interest. She makes a fine appearance and is of interest to Lucky as she is the only person who loves Lucky and not his money (which is all stolen). She is the only one who discourages Lucky from stealing, others encourage him, for their own good!

Amidst all these few good and most con characters, Lucky faces many victories, few defeats, betrayals and show of hatred from his family as he becomes a renowned thief. Lucky's ordeal is captured brillantly in this two hour flick by Dibakar Banerjee. Khosla Ka Ghosla his first venture was a great experience. Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! is a more matured direction though. His serio-comic story telling pattern is what is most impressive. Along with entertainment he supplies basic messages of life.

Coming to the fact that why has Paresh Rawal played a triple role. Its no cost cutting scheme but the reason why I love this movie even more. Rawal portrays Con and Bad. In the first part of the movie he plays a baddish father who has an extramarital affair and who harrases his children. Goga Bhai and Dr. Handa are other two forms of villains. So by making one actor do the three roles, Dibakar Banerjee has tried to show the various colours of bad. They all are bad by doing different things at different levels, but after all they are all bad. Parallely, they are Goga, Handa and Lucky's father (all villains of different degrees) but in the end they are all bad(Paresh Rawal). Thats one of the strongest messages of the movie.

Without a doubt, this has to be Paresh Rawal's life time best performance. Abhay Deol plays a masterstroke too. Everyone had a lovely role to play and everyone played it well. And it wont be an exaggeration if I rate this one as the top three movies this year along with Jodha Akbar and Its A Wednesday!

Lucky is finally caught by the officers of the Special Branch. They carry him to the local station, not until.....