Good Luck Sakhi Movie Review

Mahanati did make Keerthy Suresh a poster woman for female-centric films. She has become the go-to-girl for lady-oriented movies. However, Penguin and Miss India did turn out as major disappointments. Keerthy is trying her luck again with Good Luck Sakhi. She teamed up with Nagesh Kukunoor whose Iqbal had got a national award.

Plot

Sakhi (Keerthy Suresh), a daily wage worker at a small-scale turmeric powder industry, is seen as jinxed. She is referred to as ‘Bad Luck’ Sakhi as she is believed to bring bad luck to the people around her. Her childhood friend Goli Raju aka Ramarao (Aadhi Pinisetty), a drama artist, knows Sakhi’s shooting capabilities. He takes her to retired Colonel (Jagapathi Babu) who is looking to train a shooter. How Sakhi becomes a state champion and how she brings fame to her village is the crux of the story.

Performances

Keerthy Suresh does a neat job as Sakhi. However, she couldn’t shine in a role that goes on a predictable path making things quite easy for her success. Jagapathi Babu is good as a stereotypical coach who is concerned about his student’s victory. Aadhi Pinisetty gets sidelined. He became dependable. Rahul Ramakrishna’s character doesn’t engage at all. Raghu Babu, Sathya Krishna and other characters failed to get noticed due to lack of screen presence.

Technicalities

Director Nagesh Kukunoor struggles to the core in translating his idea and vision onto the screen in his Telugu directorial debut. No where, he excelled in his craft. He chose a routine story that is further marred by the flat screenplay and poor direction. Scenes are highly predictable and none of them leave any impact. Devi Sri Prasad is the saving grace. He did pretty well despite the fact that the film has nothing much to offer. Inthandamga and Bad Luck Sakhi songs are good.

Plus Points

Keerthy Suresh
DSP’s Music

Minus Points

Predictable Scenes
Slow Pace
Lacks Emotion
Bad Direction

Analysis

An award-winning filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor, who is known for sports films like Iqbal, teaming up with Keerthy Suresh for a sports drama sounds exciting. But sadly, the excitement is confined to the paper. It is not translated onto the screen. Nagesh couldn’t deliver an engaging film with Good Luck Sakhi. Neither the story, nor the screenplay nor the direction, he couldn’t leave his mark. No where, the film craves for the audience’s attention. It’s filled with nostalgic moments and predictability.

Keerthy’s character is jinxed as all her matchmakings won’t succeed. This is a cliched portrayal of showing as jinxed. The ‘bad luck’ of Sakhi isn’t well established in the first place. There are no struggles and hurdles in her life. She is a happy-go-lucky girl with a ‘jinx’ tag. An ex-colonel randomly turning up at the village to set up a shooting academy to discover the diamonds in the dust isn’t convincing either. After Goli Raju’s reference, he gives a chance to Sakhi to prove her natural talent of shooting that was proved with Golis in her village. She cracks it with ease. Since then, there’s no looking back for Sakhi other than some tense moments from Suri (Rahul Ramakrishna) or her own internal ‘love’ conflict. Her path to victory as state champion is portrayed as very easy. No external persons or situations could challenge Sakhi.

Sakhi only gets disturbed when she develops feelings for her aged coach who is 25 year older to her and when he is seen talking closely with his old friend – a lady doctor. The entire track looks unconvincing. Director couldn’t establish how Sakhi develops feelings for Colonel and how she later realizes her love for Goli Raju aka Ramarao. Even the track between Goli Raju and Sakhi is not shown well. It is shown as one-sided but later ends up two-sided love when Raju gets a nod from Sakhi. The entire love episode looks forced and uninteresting. That in turn disturbing Sakhi’s concentration affecting her winning prospects won’t really move. It is clear that the director didn’t get better ideas to create obstacles for the protagonist in this sports drama. The problem with the film is it lacks emotion that a sports drama needs to ought. Also, there is ample scope for the film to create comedy in the first half. But that opportunity is also wasted.

With Good Luck Sakhi, the film’s director wants to say that there is no such thing called ‘luck’ and it is hard work, effort that brings success to one with this sports drama. But the message isn’t conveyed well. It is lost. The film, which is supposed to be inspiring and keep the viewers on the edge-of-seat, won’t let them take it seriously.

On the whole, it is ‘Bad Luck’ for the audience who expected an engaging film but rather offered a sub-par film. Also, it is equally ‘Bad Luck’ for the lead actor Keerthy Suresh who has been attempting the female-centric films after Mahanati hoping to have a winner. Good Luck Sakhi falls into the category of disengaging sports dramas like Naga Shaurya’s Lakshya that was based on archery. Whereas it doesn’t get featured among the critically acclaimed sports films like Jersey, Guru and et al. This Sakhi is neither watchable in theaters nor on OTT.

Bottom Line: Bad Luck Keerthy

Rating: 1.5/5