Movie Review : Luck By Chance

Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Dimple Kapadia, Isha Sharwani, Rishi Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Hrithik Roshan
Writer-Director: Zoya Akhtar
Rating: ****

It is easy to fall in love with every performance in this intimate yet generic insider's look at the workings of the entertainment industry.

But the one that I carried home with me was Sheeba Chadha. A marvel of subtle writing, Sheeba plays a podgy, cunning but simple-hearted producer's sister-in-law whose husband (Aly Khan) is carrying on with a struggling starlet right under her naïve eyes.

One not-so-pleasant afternoon, Sheeba barges into her husband's van and sees a red-nosed bleary-eyed Konkona Sen Sharma (who has just been told she doesn't get a role she has been waiting all her career for). Sheeba senses what's going on. But she quickly digresses her mind from her husband's extra-marital affair.

The industry is filled with such deliberately desensitised people who function within the fickle and frighteningly flamboyant film industry with gut-wrenching self-delusion.

"Luck By Chance" -- a truly out-of-the-box outstanding work of subtle, sly, satirical and whispering art -- is filled with people whom you're bound to have met in the fetid corridors of Bollywood or the Hindi film industry, as the star-mother Dimple Kapadia insists on calling it.

Never before has the film industry been perceived with such intuitively internalised abundance. A subtle splendour galvanised by performances that range from the credible to the incredible takes the narrative to pinnacles of expressiveness.

The performances help to ignite the characters into states of subtle yet vivid shades. The ambitious mother-daughter (Dimple-Isha Sharwani) pair, the strugglers, wannabes and losers...oh yes, every character in "Luck By Chance" possesses a luminously lived-in quality, bringing to the surface feelings, thoughts and images that are normally not brought out on screen.

Every player -- parodic, poignant and pitched perfectly -- makes savage fun of the very foibles that they probably practice with masterful manipulative hands in real life.

Zoya Akhtar gets into the star space without a moment's aggression in her storytelling. The moments that define the relationships are built stealthily. This is a world that every person in the Mumbai film industry (for Dimple's sake, let's not call it Bollywood!) knows first-hand.

The debutante director occupies that space with unostentatious spirit, nurturing interludes between characters (the two strugglers Farhan Akhtar-Konkona, producer-wife Rishi Kapoor-Juhi Chawla, ideologically separated co-actors Farhan-Arjun Mathur) with the cautious care of a mother who wants to bring up her child with the right values without drawing attention to her nurturing acumen.

This is a work of tender, subtle care with moments whose immense value strikes you after the wonderfully conversational dialogues (Javed Akhtar at his expressive best) have had their say.

At heart, "Luck By Chance" is a story of one man's plunge into the morass of compromise as he heads towards his dreams. Farhan gets what can only called another chance to do the histrionic dance. As he goes from wide-eyed wannabe to a morally devalued creature, the narrative charts his course with savage humour.

Farhan's scenes with the nakedly adulatory star daughter(Isha playing dumb dead-on) are designed as a blend of satirical erotica and ideological annihilation. Farhan gets it right.

This is a work that oozes outstanding acting talent from every nook and corner. Whether it's Aly as a on-the-move producer or Arjun as a struggling actor who would rather struggle in theatre than compromise, every character plays a person you've met if you've ever been a part of the Mumbai film industry.

Super stand-out performances by Rishi, Dimple, Sheeba, Hrithik Roshan(as a superstar on the skids) and of course, Konkona, whose best performance this is.

On the deficit side, (yes even a film of such high order must face the music) the narrative with its inbuilt jokes and references is too much a Bollywood insider's job, largely inaccessible to the common man who wouldn't know the name of Ranbir Kapoor's secretary and couldn't care less.

On most levels, "Luck By Chance" stands tall and luminous, portraying the world of arclights with a synthesis of style, sympathy and substance that is the opposite of the synthetic way the world of showbiz is generally portrayed in cinema.

What stays with you are moments like the one where the struggling hero approaches the once glamorous star mother at a party and wins her over... a moment that builds up into a muffled explosion of ambitious scheming achieved at a place where the sound of broken hearts is inaudible.

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Dev D - a punk and grunge version of 'Devdas'

Nine cinematic versions of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's immortal love story Devdas have been released since the first silent film in 1928. Now Anurag Kashyap is ready with the 10th version, titled Dev D releasing on Friday - a fresh, contemporary take on the romance that breaks all its typecasts.

"I scripted the film on the basis of news headlines on the Gen-X because I wanted to take the angle of today's youth in the film," Kashyap said over phone from Mumbai.

Produced by UTV Bindaas, the film has Abhay Deol in the title role. Newcomers Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin play the female leads.

While the previous adaptations were set in Kolkata and the protagonist was shown as a zamindar's son, Kashyap's film is set in rural Punjab and also explores the dingy, morbid and dark underbelly of Delhi. For a change, the protagonist Dev (Abhay) is a rich industrialist's son.

Dev, who was sent to London, returns to his hometown and his childhood sweetheart Paro (Mahi) after 12 years. But his life is turned upside down when he finds out that Paro is married off to someone else.

While Paro picks up the thread of her life and moves on with grit and dignity, Dev, soaked in self-pity, drowns himself in darkness and hopelessness.

While mourning his lost love, Dev comes across a prostitute called Chanda (Kalki) who lives life on the edge. After a disastrous MMS scandal, she is disowned by her family and is forced into isolation.

Kashyap captures the sensibilities, conflict, aggression and recklessness of youth today through these characters.

The music of the film can already be heard in discotheques and cars in cities. Its 18 tracks include Rajasthani, Punjabi and Awadhi folk numbers.

Abhay is very confident about the film.

"Devdas has been made before, but this one has a very new, fresh and out of the box approach. Nobody had ever thought of making Devdas in this contemporary way," said Abhay.

"Dev D adopts an unusual and contemporary approach and I think that is exactly what will work for the film because it will be like a revelation to the people. It's always good to turn a stereotype image and experiment with it," he added.

While the 1955 version by Bimal Roy and the last remake in 2002 by Sanjay Leela Bhansali won audiences' hearts, what is to be seen is whether Kashyap's modern version of the twisted Bengali romance manages to strike a chord with film buffs.

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At 30, Bipasha Basu looking for serious roles

She came into the limelight with her coffee bean complexion in Ajnabee and was called a scorcher for her skin show in Jism. But Bollywood beauty Bipasha Basu, who turns 30 on Wednesday, has now moved on from being just a sex icon and is signing on mature roles.

Voted the Sexiest Asian woman in 2007 by the British weekly newspaper Eastern Eye, the starlet of films like Rudraksh, No Entry, Omkara and Dhoom 2 is taking steps towards signing on for serious roles.

"If I don't like what's being offered, I won't sign anything (any more)," Bipasha had earlier said.

Her stint with arthouse movie started with Prakash Jha's 2005 political drama Apaharan. He presented her in a deglamourised role, but it was Ajay Devgan who had an author-backed role.

Bipasha's first meatier role was in Madhur Bhandarkar's critically acclaimed 2006 film Corporate. She proved her mettle and both critics and audiences applauded her performance. She was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actress award.

Last year she did Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali film Shob Charitro Kalponik and is currently doing Sudipto Chattopadhyaya's Pankh and Rahul Dholakia's Lamhaa.

Despite churning out fewer hits and more misses, the actress, who entered filmdom in 2001, constantly hogged the limelight, thanks to her oomph factor.

Her long-awaited share of fame came in 2008 with hits like Race and Bachna Ae Haseeno. She is now breaking from convention and taking on new challenges.

For Lamhaa, Bipasha is all set to change the dynamics of physical appearances of a Kashmiri girl.

"When you think of a Kashmiri girl in our movies, what comes to mind is a fair-skinned, light-eyed girl. But I want to disprove that myth. The pre-conceived notions have to be overcome," said Bipasha.

The actress is bent on looking convincing in the role and had even invited a Kashmiri woman to Mumbai in order to study her body language, speech patterns and mannerisms to get into the character.

"I think I'm going to be more keen on getting it right than the director. I've never done a film like this before. The role requires me to be someone else altogether.

"And for this I needed help. I wanted to play the character the way girls really are today in Kashmir. Very basic," explained the actress, who is dating Bollywood hunk John Abraham.

Unlike other actors, Bipasha is not very keen to try her luck in Hollywood.

"No filmmakers of Hollywood are willing to sign any Bollywood actor without a screen test apart from Aishwarya Rai. They seem to know no Hindi film actors, not even Amitabh Bachchan.

"I found out that I will have to start again (there) from scratch like screen tests and other tantrums. They treat you like a newcomer. So I've decided to stay in Mumbai and be the 'queen' here," she had said.

"India is a very comfortable place for us because we have already made a niche here. So why would anyone want to go and struggle there? I don't want to go and struggle. I have gone through my struggle."

Her other future projects include Aa Dekhen Zara and Freeze.

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Aamir was invited on board Ghajini by film's villain

Aamir Khan's Ghajini may be running to packed houses, but not many know that it was the film's villain Pradeep Rawat who got the superstar interested in the movie that was originally made in Tamil.

"Aamir Khan usually has Diwali parties at his house. It was at one of these parties that Pradeep Rawat, who has worked with him in a couple of films like Lagaan and Sarfarosh, told him about the film," said Madhu Mantena, one of the producers of Ghajini.

Rawat had played the villain in the Tamil version that starred Surya and Asin Thottumkal in the lead roles.

"Rawat told him that he had just worked in a film down south that had become a huge hit and now the producers wanted to remake it in Hindi. Mr. Khan saw the film, liked it and was immediately on board," Mantena, who is COO of Sa Re Ga Ma films division, said.

Rawat, Asin and director A.R. Murugadoss are the common links between the Tamil version and the Hindi remake.

Then why is Surya, the lead actor of the Tamil version, not part of the film?

"If you have a chance of producing a film with Aamir Khan, would you go for producing it with Surya?" the producer quipped.

Mantena, who worked as CEO of Ram Gopal Varma's Factory for four years, said being a producer was his long-term ambition and he could not have thought of a better project for his maiden venture.

Allu Arvind, one of the biggest producers down south, had bought the rights of Ghajini and was planning to remake it in Hindi.

"As we have been partners for a long time, Allu Arvind offered me to produce the film and I thought it was the best offer to venture into my long-time ambition of being a producer," Mantena said.

Mantena said he now plans to dub the film in Spanish and release it in the US and Spain in about two months' time.

"Usually most big films are dubbed in German and released in Germany, but we are dubbing Ghajini in Spanish because I feel Spanish emotions are very close to Indian emotions."

He said that though Spain has a small market, it would get good play in the US.

"The Spanish community is the second largest community after the Americans in the US. So we plan to give it a mainstream Spanish release in the US. We are mainly targeting the west coast and Mexican borders that have a huge Spanish population," Mantena said.

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David Dhawan's Hook Ya Crook to go on floors on Jan 7

David Dhawan's next directorial venture "Hook Ya Crook" will go on
the floors next month, UTV Motion Pictures, which will produce the
movie, announced on Saturday.

The movie, a comedy, has John Abraham in the lead role with Amrita Rao and R. Siddharth, who last appeared in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's "Rang De Basanti" in 2006.
Written by Rensil D'Silva, "Hook Ya Crook" is Dhawan's first movie to be launched after the success of Salman Khan starrer "Partner".
This will be John Abraham's second movie with UTV Motion Pictures after "Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal."

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