OYE!! ITS GREAT!!

MOVIE: Luck By Chance (2009)
DIRECTOR: Zoya Akhtar
CAST: Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Isha Sharvani
RATING:



Theres nothing like a January blockbuster. Mostly in Bollywood it is seen that after a star studded Diwali followed by a even more star studded and packed theatres December, January is termed by producers as thanda and a time when people chose to get back to work rather than chew popcorns in front of Bolly dramas. This trend seems to have changed since last year. Jodha Akbar was a great film and a super hit having run over 100 days and had released on 15 January in a period when the superhit Taare Zameen Par was about to get Tax Free. This year people were expecting Akshay Kumar's Chandni Chowk to China to continue the dream run after his senseless tales like Welcome and Singh is Kinng accumulated lot of wealth for his distributors.
But we all know what has happened to CC2C (no one wants to C).

Luck By Chance released on 30th and has had a poor opening according to my sources in Cinemax Sion and Imax Wadala. But after great reviews in the morning newspapers, including a rare four star from Mayank Shekhar, the bookings have picked up. Still to conclude if its a hit, the distributors need time. I dont know if LBC would give solace to the distributors but to movie lovers it will. After no brainer entertainers have grossed 235 crores internationally, this seems to be the first this year which has got some brain element in it.

Coming to the film now, LBC is a creative delight, an artistic wonder and paradise for the viewers. The movie fades in beautifully with a light track Yeh Zindagi Bhi and the video deals with the sidelines of the glamour world. And then as the story proceeds you feel its Sona Mishra's (Konkana Sen Sharma) story. But as soon as the husky voiced, quick humoured, smart and dashing Vikram Jaisingh (Farhan Akhtar) makes an appearance the story shifts into being his. Both Sona and Vikram are struggling actors and its "by chance" that they get to meet. They fall in love but nothing great happens to their carrer.

Rishi Kapoor plays(excellently) Romi Rolly an eccentric producer and Juhi Chawla plays his wife. Juhi did not have a big role but she did well. Rolly is making a film Dil Ki Aag which is directed by his brother played by Sanjay Kapoor. Zaffar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) is the lead along with heroine Niki Walia(Isha Sharvani, sweet and sexy) who is the daughter of yesteryear superstar Neena Walia played marvellously by one of my favourites; Dimple Kapadia. I often say to myself looking at the mirror, "I have got two dimples!"

LBC takes you through a journey of struggle, success, selfishness, ungratefulness, compulsions, friendship and enemity which exists in every layer of Bollywood; be it strugglers like Vikram or be it the producers like Rolly. It tells us that every piece of cake is made of the same cream, its just that the higher you are, the more known you and your layer is. I wouldn't divulge much of the story nor would I tell you about the guest appearances in the story, these are things which you should yourself find out and enjoy.

With amazing performances, especially by Farhan and Konkona, this movie is surely the best one I have seen from a long time. It is slow paced but not long, it has got the necessary entertainment and it has got energy and comedy, but all that is just the cherry over the beautiful cake of performances. It does resemble Fashion or may be Om Shanti Om to some extent, but Zoya Akhtar's matured direction gives LBC a place, quite high, in the shelf of Bollywood classics! Go for this one!