Oye Lucky! – Aap hain India ka future
We all work hard for our money. At least some of you do.
I don’t believe in guilting people into giving to charity, so I won’t ask you to support good cinema. And I certainly won’t use the trope of paisa vasool; money buys what you want her to buy.
She makes the world go around, about that there is no doubt. Tis love that makes this place bearable. One can’t buy love (at least not the kind worth arguing with into old age), but you can sure as hell try stealing.
NYU Premiere
And so sets out Lucky. To win a gullfraynd.
***SPOILER ALERT – THERE ARE NO SPOILERS HERE***
The film starts with Lucky Abhay, waiting to appear in court, with his loot on display, among which is a Pomeranian that runs away, with cops giving chase. Hilarity ensues.
Dibakar makes his intentions clear. This is going to be a fun, caper of a film. Or does he? You sly fox, you. When the cops try in vain to catch the dog (posh colony ka kutta hai; angrezi main bulao), Lucky tells the cops, “Pyaar se bulao.” It’s almost like how heavy metal records supposedly carried satanic messages if you played it in reverse. Almost.
Indians seem to have a funny relationship with thievery. One of the gods is renowned for stealing stuff and that is accepted as mischief, yet our parents and teachers always say stealing and lying are bad.
I was a klepto in my teens. I filched sunglassses, CDs, and Parkers. I stole pens. PENS, which all parents were dying to buy for their kids. There is no reasonable explanation or justification for what I did, other than the fact that it thrilled me. It wasn’t to be cool, because I never used anything. My parents would have wondered where I got it from. That is why I like Dibakar’s choice of showing teen Lucky stealing random shit, and getting caught, through a bunch of stills without any real explanation.
I liked the Writers’ (Urmi Juvekar, Dibakar Bannerjee) choice of not explaining what didn’t matter or things they expected us to get. For example, teen Lucky is Sikh with a turban, but grown up Abhay doesn’t wear one. One would imagine that a thief needs to be inconspicuous.
It is this attention to detail and confidence in the audience’s intelligence that seems to be Dibakar’s strength. He proved it with Khosla Ka Ghosla and he does it again.
What’s cool is that he uses it to his advantage to pack scenes with visual information. Every joke has the obvious broad component with punchline etc., that 80% of the audience would get, but they build several levels of subtext or other character business going on in the background that make the joke funnier or deeper depending on your relation to the material.
The jokes fly at you from all directions (there was only one 13 minute stretch during the 130 minute film, when the audience was not guffawing), and from all characters.
And you have Abhay in a star-making turn, anchoring scenes, and the film with his earnestness and likability. He infuses the character and frames with warmth and delivers the funnies with effortless timing and emotion.
There is no showboating. No great emotional breakdown. It is not a performance that can be called “understated” because that is usually reserved for serious movies. Lucky is charismatic, a smooth operator, but with this tinge of melancholy. He chases but never quite attains; with no consciousness of his motives or reason for being. He just is. And that’s how Abhay plays him.
I originally thought casting Mr. Rawal in 3 roles was a bit of a stunt, designed to get attention. It’s a bit like going to watch your favorite actor’s movies, except they’re all in the same film. The obvious distinction between the 3 characters is the facial hair–bearded & turbaned irate father, clean-shaven criminal/musician and mustachioed vet/restaurateur/slimeball. Anyone that watched Dasavatharam knows that prosthetics don’t make a character. It’s all in the eyes, and Paresh owns.
Each character that Paresh plays is a father figure to Abhay, and having the same person play three roles does away with introducing new actors and creates a sort of thematic resonance. Abhay is chasing family, love, and above all acceptance.
I have not seen any of the other actors in movies before (save for Archana Puran singh), and they left me with the same feeling that I got when I watched Satya for the first time. It could only be them. It could only be the way they played it. They were able to communicate that their characters had a life outside the scenes they were in. They weren’t doing staged line readings, and finding the light for the camera. They were living their life, and we just happened to catch a glimpse as they interacted with Lucky.
It is a rare film that entertains, and has something to say, and packs in a big heart while doing all of the above. It is even rarer in India.
In a world of makkaars, Lucky walks with grace. So what if he broke the law, and stole your pagoda.
Image courtesy FilmKaravan
Tags: Abhay Deol, Dibakar Bannerjee, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Lucky Singh, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! review, Paresh Rawal, Review, Sneha Khanwilkar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Uddi Baba!!! So are New Yorkers gonna flood the theaters when the movie opens this Wednesday!!!
So Lucky audience ka paisa nahi choorata…… :-D
I am going for this sure, its not too often that i find an entertainer, where i don’t have to leave my brains behind. And after the Dronas,Kidnaps and Yuvvraajs this is a real refresher.
The praises seem to be coming thick and fast….Abhay Deol appears to be on a dream run what with DEV-D yet to release…
:)
abhay deol has arrived and how
@ Ratnakar…how could you forget Dostana?
Abhay, if you are reading this, buy our dear dabba a whole round of shots, the next time you are in NY.
@ Shreyansh
Naah have not seen Dostana, the Baywatch kinda promos, and Dharma Productions banner put me off. Hope i have not missed much.
@Ratnakar…Lucky guy :-); but by the same logic how could you see Yuvraj?
SG has lost it big time
boy o boy o boy! what a thrill it is… waiting to watch this. dabba – one round of bundy, on me.
@ Shreyansh
To Err is Human
.
But seriously i should have known better, consider mr SG’s recent track record.
Ratnakar my friend-
did you also watch Yuvvraj @ Stutee Cinema?
SG surely must realise its high time he stopped making such movies.
Atleast he can be better off backing good movies like OLLO ( like he’s done himself with Joggers Park,Iqbal etc)
BTW- Im really curious to know
“Whatever happened to the SHOWMAN”.
@ Shreyansh-13
Too much of SHOW, very less of story or script. But even at his best, he was overrated.
Hero and Karz were good.
Karma a very average clone of Sholay, that movie ran, because the overall quality of movies that time was junk.
Subash Ghai flourished in 80’s, because he was like an Andheri Nagari Chaupat Raja.
In fact i really liked Taal, among his movies, the characters were better etched, and there was a bit of a grey, especially in Anil’s character and to some extent even in Aish’s too. That was the last decent movie he directed.
He should have retired after Kisna itself, a fit candidate for the Torture series.
BTW yeah Anti Family man, kya hote hai bhai, at least in English i have not heard such a term. Yeah kaun si bhaasha ki word hai.
BTW Zayed Khan, was talking in an interview, how his son teaches him to be an idiot. LOL, that guy is a certified idiot, does he need to learn again.
@ Ratnakar – i think the problem with SG is that he still lives in the same old world. Same charatcers, similar stories, Family drama and all.
i remember watching KISNA, and in the very first frame a dialogue goes “(the foreigner) ne sirf kaha namaste”…”hum sam samajte”; at that instant i told my friend, this is a horrible film.
U r right, it fits the bill for the TORTURE series, what with the female charatcer, giving a preview of all the KAMASUTRA positions on the rope.
TAAL was an average film, only the character of Anil Kapoor was good in it. All the charatcers on Akshay Khanna’s family were merely Caricatures.
This is one great film! And great review Dabba, without giving all the plot away. Hate that in reviewers these days…
Anyway, Abhay Deol OWNS the film. I think that no other actor could have played Lucky with such charisma and made him so likeable and believable, in the absurdity of the situations. We never doubt his reasonings, we never question his motives, just follow along on the ride.
I liked Mr. Rawal in multiple roles and agree that it helps reinstate – constantly – Lucky’s father issues. Brilliant choice to always have the same actor playing those “paternal” parts!
And finally, it’s most often what happens off screen, or just slightly hidden from view, that makes this film. The scene with Lucky and Sonal in the cafe, while the argument about the car is going on behind the window, is absolutely and mindblowingly funny!
Agree with Shreyansh and Ratnakar. Subhash Ghai is overrated. He still makes those 80s kind of films with evil mamas and mamis. His movies are ridiculously OTT and theatrical.
This is why I love ur writing.. It has such generosity directed at the medium. No efforts to please a particular individual. No efforts to be clever… Just a warmth that is flows in so naturally so how our movies should be like…
And I am dying to watch the movie now…
Jabbari !!!
Waiting for “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye ”
@Dabba
I didn’t get any mail, so far!!! :{
My alternate mail id
shekharshimpi {at} kriyastudios {dot} com
Some very keen observations there, Dabba.
My curiosity to see this movie can’t wait, will catch it on friday morning!
“At least not the kind worth arguing with into old age” – nicely put.
thanks guys, and the film is damn fine.
My apologies for not mentioning the music. There are some nice touches where Lucky’s disillusionment with the world’s makkaari is done through the bg score. Sneha adds verve to the robbery scenes by pumping them with excitement, and energy, while maintaining the purity of the local flava.
A film that entertains without forcing you to think, and entertains even more when you choose to think .
@ oz,
don’t know about new yorkers, but i have made death threats to people that they must watch it and bring at least 3 people.
perhaps people were inspired by Lucky, but the New Yorkers at the premiere stole all the posters of the film after the screening. Ek to muft main dekhte hain, aur uske oopar chori!
Dabba, after reading your review, it makes me more sad that I couldn’t made it yest’. Anyways, looking fwd to the movie, and fucking nice piece of writing, not even a hint of anything going on in the actual movie. Good one..!
Ratnakar ji, lagta hai aapko jaana tha Japan, pahoch gaye Chin.
I believe the correct idiom should be “Andhon mein kaana Raja”
Really, really looking forward to seeing this. Must drag boyfriend to see his first Hindi film under threat of dire consequences.
@ Dewi, yeah my bad. Actually do keep getting mixed up with both idioms. U want to take ur bf to Yuvvraaj???? Arre Dewiji there r far better Hindi movies to show him.
No, no, good heavens no! Not Yuvvraaj! Subbu uncle ki yeh ham-fest main hi na dekhoon, to boyfriend kya cheez hai.
I was referring to OLLO, because I really want to see the film, first day, first show at Naz here in LA.
Dabba, congrats!! Masand just got inspired by your review.
Here we go:
Dabba : “I liked the Writers’ (Urmi Juvekar, Dibakar Bannerjee) choice of not explaining what didn’t matter or things they expected us to get. For example, teen Lucky is Sikh with a turban, but grown up Abhay doesn’t wear one. One would imagine that a thief needs to be inconspicuous.”
Masand : “Again, if you’re wondering why the younger Lucky wears a turban and the older one does not, don’t expect any answers from the director. Think about it yourself. Come on, you’d expect a thief to be inconspicuous, wouldn’t you? “
Dabba: “The jokes fly at you from all directions (there was only one 13 minute stretch during the 130 minute film, when the audience was not guffawing), and from all characters.”
Masand: “The jokes in Oye Lucky Lucky Oye fly at you from all directions, and they seldom fail because in most cases the characters aren’t in on the joke.”
C’on..Dabba
Go ahead and file a suit against Masand for Plagiarising!
Even we can extract some money from him as settlement and use that money for developement of our own PFC!! 8)
I have mixed reactions. Some of the shots were very good. Subtle and so natural. But some of them were boring. Some of them I did not like for the “direct” approach ( like the aunty and dolly hugging Lucky – I know it happens in real life, but not so openly-shown :-D )
Ratnakar, mission accomplished. Boyfriend lured to OLLO and comes out of the theatre with a very solid first impression of Hindi films.
Even heard him saying to a friend on the phone how great the experience was, and how different the film is from the run of the mill Hollywood movies that he’s been seeing lately.
I’m now on a mission to preach the OLLO gospel. This week has been so bleak for me and I was very depressed following all the news in Bombay.
OLLO was the one bright spot and I cannot thank Dibakar and the entire creative team enough for it.