I watched this movie when it first came out as a teenager and loved it: it as my fantasy come true, beautiful to look at, had an awesome musical score and starred Salman Khan which pretty much guaranteed my bias toward it!! Watching it again today I have a newfound appreciation for it as a unique film (for the industry it was made in at least) and as a good film, in fact it is now officially one of my favourites.
The film is unusual for Hindi cinema in the sense that its plot driven (a more Hollywood feature) as opposed to emotionally driven. Hindi films seem to take a lot from Romanticism ideals with the plot being driven by the larger than life characters irrational and spontaneous emotions. Lucky is thus a distinguished film: the two protagonists are if anything ordinary, thrown into extra-ordinary circumstances which bring out their emotions and eventually changes them.
This brings me to another point; its is difficult to put this film into any genre at all, it balances between action and romance. I personally think of it as a fairytale following the journey of two characters during which they come to mean something very special to one another.
Seeing as the love story was not the dominating focus and very subtle I can see why the Indian audience was not very receptive to the film. It's not a "masala" film as one would expect a Salman Khan film to be: yes its mounted on a grand canvas, has commercial music and is peppered with some masala moments (they don't detract from the film)but the emotion typically depicted in Hindi films is not there in a melodramatic fashion and has to be actually looked for and pondered.
The film makes great use of a fairytale motiff, once again unusual for a Hindi film and will go over the top of a viewers head if they are unfamiliar with fairy tales. There is great use of symbology with what characters say at the beginning being repeated toward the end and a very subtle link between the songs Aa ke bharlo and Chori Chori.
Salman khan gives an awesome performance, very subtley mainly through his expressions showing the change that comes about in the very charming character of Aditya Sekhri. Sneha Ullal acts well, i'll admit her crying scenes left me in want (one star off) but overall for a newcomer completely foreign to the industry she does well and suits the character to the tee, however the change that comes about in her character Lucky is seen more through action than her expression.
As its already been established the cinematography is brilliant. The music topped the charts with good reason but is enhanced by its placement in the film or rather the songs enhance the film; not a single song sticks out. The direction is great and the film is well edited with nothing seeming unnecessary or prolonged.
The action of the film begins with "Ghar chale" and ends with it also, but the two characters are not the same at the end. As Salman Khan described the film is about growing up; not just for Lucky but for Aditya also. I personally enjoyed watching the characters grow up under the pressure of the circumstances: Aditya blossoms from a selfish "manchild" of sorts into a sensitive man watch when he offers to beg the doctor and you'll know that he hasn't done it for anyone else but Lucky whilst Lucky blossoms from the shy dreamer into a young woman; another standout and symbolic scene where she embraces her childhood in the form of the child and her subsequent escape from the train is something she initially would not have done alone.
On a ending note there's quite a fuss about whether Aditya actually loved Lucky. The expression on his face said it all during that embrace (now by best cinematic hug!!)and in fact his expressions and actions all throughout the movie said it all! The fact that he didn't vocalize it only makes the film all the more special as does the ambiguous ending,
The film is unusual for Hindi cinema in the sense that its plot driven (a more Hollywood feature) as opposed to emotionally driven. Hindi films seem to take a lot from Romanticism ideals with the plot being driven by the larger than life characters irrational and spontaneous emotions. Lucky is thus a distinguished film: the two protagonists are if anything ordinary, thrown into extra-ordinary circumstances which bring out their emotions and eventually changes them.
This brings me to another point; its is difficult to put this film into any genre at all, it balances between action and romance. I personally think of it as a fairytale following the journey of two characters during which they come to mean something very special to one another.
Seeing as the love story was not the dominating focus and very subtle I can see why the Indian audience was not very receptive to the film. It's not a "masala" film as one would expect a Salman Khan film to be: yes its mounted on a grand canvas, has commercial music and is peppered with some masala moments (they don't detract from the film)but the emotion typically depicted in Hindi films is not there in a melodramatic fashion and has to be actually looked for and pondered.
The film makes great use of a fairytale motiff, once again unusual for a Hindi film and will go over the top of a viewers head if they are unfamiliar with fairy tales. There is great use of symbology with what characters say at the beginning being repeated toward the end and a very subtle link between the songs Aa ke bharlo and Chori Chori.
Salman khan gives an awesome performance, very subtley mainly through his expressions showing the change that comes about in the very charming character of Aditya Sekhri. Sneha Ullal acts well, i'll admit her crying scenes left me in want (one star off) but overall for a newcomer completely foreign to the industry she does well and suits the character to the tee, however the change that comes about in her character Lucky is seen more through action than her expression.
As its already been established the cinematography is brilliant. The music topped the charts with good reason but is enhanced by its placement in the film or rather the songs enhance the film; not a single song sticks out. The direction is great and the film is well edited with nothing seeming unnecessary or prolonged.
The action of the film begins with "Ghar chale" and ends with it also, but the two characters are not the same at the end. As Salman Khan described the film is about growing up; not just for Lucky but for Aditya also. I personally enjoyed watching the characters grow up under the pressure of the circumstances: Aditya blossoms from a selfish "manchild" of sorts into a sensitive man watch when he offers to beg the doctor and you'll know that he hasn't done it for anyone else but Lucky whilst Lucky blossoms from the shy dreamer into a young woman; another standout and symbolic scene where she embraces her childhood in the form of the child and her subsequent escape from the train is something she initially would not have done alone.
On a ending note there's quite a fuss about whether Aditya actually loved Lucky. The expression on his face said it all during that embrace (now by best cinematic hug!!)and in fact his expressions and actions all throughout the movie said it all! The fact that he didn't vocalize it only makes the film all the more special as does the ambiguous ending,
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