Luck by Chance

Luck By Chance is about all things related to the film industry, it's refreshingly subtle in its obsession. Although its two lead protagonists a pair of struggling actors, talk shop all the time, the emphasis is mostly on networking and bagging opportunities under certain filmmakers. And so it is Singh is Kinng over theatre, where there's seemingly no place for heavy-duty pseudo intellectualism or world cinema humbug.Also, wanting to be an actor doesn't always translate into a certified fan boy like one of its characters demonstrates to us. To impress his co-star's mom, a yesteryear actress, he winds up catching all her previous DVDs a couple of days before he is to meet the concerned party. Even the prevalence of casting couch is approached with alarming nonchalance and 'There are no free lunches' school of pragmatism. Mostly though Luck By Chance treads the career path of two ambitious actors toiling to make it big -- Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) and Sona (Konkona Sen Sharma) and what happens when the twain cross. While Vikram goes through the motions doing the acting class routine whilst taking lessons for horse-riding and dancing, getting his portfolio shot against the dilapidated Bandra fort, a favoured venue with most strugglers, Sona plays an established starlet doing her 'dead girl's sister' bit in important looking movies. As always failures and frustrations forge the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the two leading to hinted intimacy.t times reminiscent of the earnestness of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Guddi. On occasions, emulating the purposeful use of star-studded cameos as in Woody Allen's Celebrity, Luck By Chance is neither preoccupied by gimmickry nor dedicated to hard-and-fast realism.The movie features a whole lot of star/industry appearances, which are best left unmentioned and enjoyed for what it's worth. But as the acting guru Nand Kishore (taking off on a popular acting teacher) and creative writer-caught-in-a-commercial caper, Saurav Shukla and Anurag Kashyap deserve special mention.You know what? So does the film. And that's neither by Luck. Or By Chance.