At the heart of the story, Lucky is – you guessed it – unlucky with money. It keeps slipping out of his reach at every step. Coming to think of it, he’s not all that lucky with his women either.
Sanjay Dutt steals the ceetees with the best lines although his chhuri-twirling gets a bit excessive. Although Anil Kapoor turns out a good performance, his scruffy and unkempt get-up is overshadowed in by the stylish larger-than-life persona of the other characters.
Sameera Reddy is indeed the next Zeenat Aman. She manages to emote quite well, in the midst of all the skin show. She writhes in agony, ecstasy and item numbers with equal skill.
Mahesh Manjrekar, looking very much the unhulky Hulk Hogan with the sideburns, brings Luka’s character alive with his idiosyncrasies and plain-talk.
Some of the scenes between Manjrekar and Reddy, especially the rape, could have been avoided. They slacken the pace especially in the Rashomon-esque sequence where both narrate different versions of a flashback.
Koena Mitra is wooden during the dialogue sections, but comes alive during the item numbers, including one song involving a purple dress, a car and soap suds. Yup, Liv Tyler in One Night at McCools. And yes, those were indeed coins on her dress in the song ‘Saqi Saqi’!
Aditya Panscholi has never looked better. Shakti Kapoor is wasted in a small role.
The background score by Sandeep Chowta is slick, but intrusive in scenes with dialogues. Vishal-Shekhar’s music is zippy and pulsating, with a dash of techno. Rabba is a slow number, has a moderate Kaante hangover but is picturised well. Sanjay Dutt goes off-key for Tez Dhaar, but this is the song that plays in one’s head long after the movie is over.
P.S. Vinod (cinematography) and Tinu Verma (action) deserve kudos, while Bunty Nagi could have tightened the editing a trifle. Bosco Caesar’s choreography keeps the bronzed bodies gyrating to the beat.
Indeed one of the best looking films to date and with quite a few twists to keep you interested. There’s double-crossing, incest, contract killing, murder – all the right ingredients for a noir film.
