Luck ***

Jul 31 2009 By Manish Gajjar

Directors: Soham Shah

Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Imran Khan, Shruti K. Haasan, Mithun Chakraborty, Danny Denzongpa, Ravi Kishan

The plot: Luck follows the tale of South African-based mafia kingpin, Musa (Sanjay Dutt) with one obsession – to revolutionise the betting industry. For him, life is a gamble, and what better way to skew the odds than play with unlucky people. Musa puts their lives at risk by making them perform death-defying stunts in return for big money – that’s if they survive! Musa’s business partner, Tamaang (Denzongpa), chooses 20 most unlucky characters betting for their survival. These include young guy, Mehra (Imran Khan), needing money to pay off his late father’s stock market loss and retired Major Singh (Mithun Chakraborty), who desperately needs money for his wife’s hospital bills. There is also Ayesha (Shruti Haasan), ambitious Pakistani camel racer, Shortcut, and a deceitful criminal Raghav (Ravi Kishan). What follows next is a series of dangerous stunts as competitors jump from helicopters, fight off sharks and even jump across the tracks in front of moving trains.

The verdict: Director Soham Shah’s thriller scores highly on the brilliantly executed stunts against the stunning Namibian backdrop. Allan Amin’s well executed action sequences takes the movie to a higher level from a technical point of view. But the film runs out of ‘luck’ midway due a weak plot giving you an impression you are watching a reality show! Dutt’s persona fits Musa’s character down to a tee. Young teen sensation Imran Khan is gaining maturity as an actor with every film and this can be seen in the stunt scenes. Shruti Haasan makes a confident debut whilst Ravi Kishan’s dialogue delivery will prove popular with the masses.