Review of Luck by Chance (2009) by Anshul T — 25 Feb 2010

After the dissapointments which came last year in the form of a Hancock or a Hulk, a Ghajini or a Rab ne(and please don't even get me started on the Tashans, Singh is Kings and suchlike), I was really looking forward to watching Luck By Chance(LBC).

In his review Rajeev Masand spoke about the opening credits sequence and indeed it is mindblowing especially the shot where Zoya's name comes. LBC is a part-serious part-hilarious look at the hindi fIlm industry. A place which is full of punjabi producers, kanpuria strugglers, overprotective divas, dumb stardaughters, selfish friends and manipulating magazine editors. Zoya Akhtar, having seen most of the behind-the-scenes action herself, narrates the story of Vikram Jai Singh(Farhan) and Sona Mishra(Konkona) beautifully. So you have Zafar Khan(Hrithik), reigning superstar walking out of a producer's film to play second lead in a Karan Johar movie, the flop actor(Sanjay Kapoor) of a big producer turning director, a yesteryear's actress(Dimple) scripting every move of her daughter(Isha Sharwani) to make her entry into Bollywood easier and the saddest but the funniest of the lot, producer Romi Rolly(Rishi Kapoor) who is trying to manage everybody.

There are cameos by almost half the fillum industry(Aamir, SRK, Abhishek, Vivek, Ranbir, Dia, Akshaye Khanna, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Manish Malhotra) including a brilliant two scene cameo of Anurag Kashyap as a (DVD copycat) writer. The pace is somewhat slow but the gags and punches keep you in the loop. The entire cast plays their part to a T but the highlight is Rishi Kapoor as producer Romi Rolly. He is funny, cunning and emotional at the same time. The only weak link I found in the film is Farhan(who is unconvincing in some scenes) and the music.

Luck by Chance is an exciting debut by Zoya Akhtar. Not to be missed.