A starlet and a struggler meet while trying to navigate through the Hindi Film Industry – the Bollywood as most refer to, and end up changing each other’s lives forever. Luck by Chance is a slice of film industry life, in which self advancement is the sole motivator. Here, notions of superstition, fate and destiny may underline every decision but it is the gigantic egos, the grand desires and the small opportunities that converge to form strange patterns.
Patterns that we call kismet. Or Luck by Chance.
In such an unpredictable climate, is success and failure what other’s define for you or is it something you decide for yourself? Luck by Chance movie review…
Vikram Jaisingh is a sincere young Delhiite whose dream is to make it to the big screen in Bollywood. He finds a companion in Sona Sharma (Konkona Sen Sharma), who plays brief and meaningless roles in ‘B’ grade films while making compromises to even make it get insignificant films.
The superstar Zaffar Khan (played by Hrithik Roshan) is tired of being typecast repeatedly playing the filmy hero for the same producer, Romy Rolly (Rishi Kapoor). He simply wants a break and with this apparent unwillingness to work with Rolly the struggler Vikram Jaising gets lucky by chance as the replacement. From here on begins the takeoff on insecurity and hypocrisy of stars and starlets of the bollywood film industry.
During the outdoor shootings, Vikram gets casually (and calculatively) closer to Niki Walia (Isha Sherwani), the gorgeous daughter of the glamour queen of yester-years Neena Walia (Dimple Kapadia). There are calculations, manipulations, failing relationships and maneuvers here on.
It is Vikram (Farhan) who finally manipulates and lucks his way into a breakthrough, whose understated performance holds together this far-ranging, cameo-filled film. His character’s sincerity and innocence manages to remain sympathetic even after ditching his girlfriend to achieve stardom at any cost.
The actors are perfectly cast in their characters. Like Rishi Kapoor as a Bollywood producer, Isha Sharvani as a star kid who is carefully being groomed by Dimple Kapadia her diva mummy. A somewhat typical bollywood film maker Sanjay Kapoor who looks towards the west for inspiration. And we have Farhan Akhtar and Konkona Sen Sharma as newcomers in Bollywood, who aspire to be successful at any cost.
Bollywood stars including Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham and Ranbir Kapoor make cameo appearances as themselves.
Luck by Chance is an appealing tale of two would-be actors looking for movie stardom. Both Farhan and Konkona are complete real characters before the camera. Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia have some nice moments, while it is nice to see Sanjay Kapoor back on screen. The appealing Isha Sharvani is okay in her character.
The film is an insider look at the Bollywood film industry, with a range of issues like casting couch, movie production business, actors’ images and showbiz politics. What appeals is the impressive debut of Javed Akhtar’s dauther Zoya Akhtar’s direction in Luck by Chance.
Cast of Luck by Chance:
Vikram Jaisingh – Farhan Akhtar
Sona Mishra – Konkona SenSharma
Rommy Rolly – Rishi Kapoor
Neena Walia – Dimple Kapadia
Nikki Walia – Isha Sharvani
Ranjit Rolly – Sanjay Kapoor
Minty Rolly – Juhi Chawla
Zaffar Khan – Hrithik Roshan (Special appearance)
Alyy Khan
Boman Irani
Anurag Kashyap
Saurabh Shukla
Credits & Crew of Luck by Chance:
Producers – Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar
Writer & Director – Zoya Akhtar
Dialogues – Javed Akhtar
Lyrics – Javed Akhtar
Music – Shankar, Eshaan & Loy
Director of Photography – Carlos Catalan
Executive Producer – Miriam Joseph
Casting – Nandini Shrikent
Costumes – Arjun Bhasin & Aparna Chandra
Production Design – Anuradha Parikh
Sound Design – Baylon Fonseca
Editor – Anand Subaya
Production Assistant – Dhananjay Kulkarni
Choreographer – Vaibhavi Merchant
Art Direction – Abid T.P.
Sets Decoration – Sonal Choudhary, Anisha Gulati
Costume Design – Arjun Bhasin, Aparna Chandra
Assistant Director – Devrath Sagar
Playback Singers – Ila Arun, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar Mahadevan, Babu Khan, Manzoor Khan, Mumay Khan, Rajab Khan, Mahalakshmi, Loy Mendonsa, Amit Paul
Luck by Chance, movie review