not as good as all the hype

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

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,

This movie had some beautiful locations and scenes, but overall the acting is bad and the story makes no sense: it is full of holes, it goes nowhere except for pointless running around, and the seasons change from early summer to midwinter seemingly overnight: wood anemones are sprouting in the green forest (they bloom in May usually), next morning apparently there is a half a metre-thick layer of snow and all the leaves have fallen from the trees: surely even those not familiar with the Northern seasons would wonder where tons of leaves have suddenly vanished?Salman Khan acts passably well, but the female lead acts like a catatonic for much of the time, thanfully then being asleep for much of the time after, and there is an unnecessarily comic character popping in and spouting nonsense just as things are otherwise tense. Songs are nice and dance scenes pretty but both lack energy and emotion. All in all only reason to watch this would be that St Petersburg looks good, as it usually does. The Russian extras do their jobs well, less so the special effects and makeup team... All in all an avoidable film.

God... to finish this movie to the end was a real struggle...One issue that strikes me as odd in quite a few Bollywood movie is racism...which is the case in this one too...I don't know but in India so many people are always complaining about racism in other countries but when watching the movies I feel they are more racist as movies from other countries:In Lucky, it's the mean Russian rapist In Dil Chahta Hai, it's the thief in disguise of a beautiful Western woman In Salaam Namaste, it's the available two-bit floozie In Dil Jo Bhi Kahey, it's the staunch racist...Anyway...it just strikes me as odd.

I must start with the admission that the Only reason I wanted to watch this film was my curiosity...I needed to know what Salman Khan's home production would do with an Aishwarya dupe. The movie was fine, I rated it 6/10 ****Spoilers!!**** The movie was sharply edited, the story crisp. Expect some clichés, tried-n-tested stock characters and weepy maudlin scenes. I liked the impeccable cinematography and tiny new twists to the familiar story line. For instance: its about Indians abroad but thank heavens, it does not move to Punjab half-way through; no seedy and pointless villains; no discomforting jingoism; the protagonist Adi (Salman) does not spout odiously saccharine lines from the start; he (thank god) does not have that mandatory scene with the girl's mum and neither's parents are dead-set against the lovers.Basically a school-girl fantasy come true, I expect the girls back home will make it a hit. I was leery about an obviously aging, haggard, lived-a-rough-life Salman paired with a girl (Sneha Ullal) who looks like a school kid. However both were at ease with each others roles, the supporting cast was adequate.I would like to make a mention of the fact that while the movie itself was not a fabulous, criterion collection material, I felt the Directors did a good job in presenting it. It's a well-made product. The story was told well, the cast did a reasonably good job, it looked great! I'll keep an eye out for their next one. And Oh, Sneha Ullal does bear an uncanny resemblance to Aishwarya Rai, her make-up and wardrobe were clearly chosen carefully to enhance that effect.As far as subliminal messages go, to a bollywood gossip enthusiast, there were many things to read between the lines. When they first meet, the girl insists she doesn't have a boyfriend, she isn't "that kind of a girl" and so on, to which the protagonist replies in a very jaded manner...yes, I've heard that before. When she then asks him to trust her, he says..."bharoosa kiya". Hmmm, in Hindi that could either mean, I trust you or I had trusted you. Wheee, my gossipy heart rejoiced...just as I had hoped. Later she berates him for not knowing how to talk to a girl. To paraphrase he says, "Well, I say...it was my fault, bye". Ahem! I will say this, one could not but notice, the Protagonist never once expressly declares his love for the girl, even right at the end. The story teases it out and one is left to fill in the blanks. I'll leave the rest for fellow enthusiasts to discover.