From South Asian Life:
“Luck By Chance” is the story of Sona and Vikram, both struggling actors who are looking for a break in the big, bad world of Bollywood. My favourite scenes in Zoya Akhtar’s “Luck By Chance” are when Rishi Kapoor is on screen as the over the top, aging Bollywood producer Romy Rolly. And that’s not just because he is brilliant in the part — he is. But the scenes capture perfectly the subtle performances and nuanced characters this film is bursting with. “Luck By Chance” is the story of Sona and Vikram, both struggling actors who are looking for a break in the big, bad world of Bollywood. Through their story, Akhtar depicts the confounding, ugly and yet oh-so-attractive world of our film industry.
The director tells the story light-heartedly but don’t expect direct humour. There are a lot of subtle references to real-life Bollywood characters, dialogues said in the passing and facial expressions, a refreshing change from the in- your-face slapstick humour we are subjected to most of the time. The film follows both Sona (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) through their journey in Bollywood, one they undertake with the understanding that nothing here comes easy. So she sleeps with a producer who promises her a big break and he has no qualms about flirting with a yesteryear actress in the hope she will cast him in her daughter’s debut project. A host of characters as well as some top Bollywood actors make an appearance in this journey. What is commendable is how Akhtar has astutely used even two-minute guest appearances. So you have Aamir displaying his “perfectionist” tendencies, Abhishek mentioning “Pa” and John Abraham talking about doing “experimental films.”
More here. (Note: Zoya and Faran are the children of famous Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar.)
