Lucky Bhaskar Movie Review

After delivering a successful film, Sir/ Vaathi, Director Venky Atluri and producers Suryadevara Naga Vamsi & Sai Soujanya teamed yet again and this time for a financial crime thriller film with Dulquer Salmaan in the lead role. The trailer of the film that was released a few days back raised the curiosity immensely among the audience. Did the film live up to the expectations? Did Venky Atluri deliver one more hit film after Sir/Vaathi? Did Dulquer deliver his hat-trick hit film in Telugu as the male lead after Mahanati & Sita Ramam? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis/review.

What is it about?

The story of the film is set in the late 1980s & early 1990s when Harsha Mehra(Yes. You read it right. Name tweaked in the film) was controlling Bombay Stock Exchange and the Indian financial market in General. How does an ordinary, honest & hard-working bank employee, Baskhar Kumar (Dulquer Salmaan) with a family take care of using his meagre salary, get himself stuck in the web of financial crimes and grow up the ladder? How did Baskhar achieve his financial goals to take care of his family? Did Baskhar ruin his life and his family in an attempt to become rich? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

The life and soul of the film is, Dulquer. Lucky Baskhar is his one-man show. He’s just brilliant both as a struggling middle-class family man and an arrogant rich man. The good thing with Dulquer is that he’s ageless. In a couple of sequences in the film, he’s shown as a middle-aged man and a college student in two different frames one after the other and yet looks seemingly believable in both the looks.

Meenakshi Chaudhary as Baskhar’s wife got a very good role and she did well. Unarguably, it is the most well-written character she played thus far in her career.

Rajkumar Kasireddy as Samba, Baskhar’s friend is entertaining. Veteran actor, Ramki as Anthony did a good job. Sai Kumar and Sachin Khedekar did well in their limited and yet crucial roles.

Technicalities:

G. V. Prakash Kumar came up with a very effective background score. His score elevated the thrills so well in many sequences, especially during the second half. His songs are good and go with the flow of the film. Producers spent a good budget to recreate the 1980s Bombay and it looks good on screen. Cinematographer, Nimish Ravi’s work is first-rate. Navin Nooli as an editor did a good job, however, his work in the first half would’ve been better.

Thumbs Up:

Dulquer’s Performance
Dialogues
Climax
Background Score

Thumbs Down:

Too Convenient Screenplay At Times
Slow Pace At Times In The First Half

Analysis:

Hansal Mehta’s 2020 web series on Sony Liv, Scam 1992 is unarguably the best web series coming out from an Indian film-maker with the backdrop of financial crimes and it talks about the life and times of Harshad Mehta, the big bull of the Bombay Stock Exchange very effectively. It is a huge task for any filmmaker to top or even match it with a film with a similar backdrop but the director, Venky Atluri succeeded largely with very effective writing & honest storytelling without deviating from the core point. Hands down, Lucky Baskhar is his best work when it comes to writing.

The way he used ‘Running’ as a metaphor during three phases of Baskhar’s life (i.e during the worst day of Baskhar’s life when he did not even have a single rupee in his pocket, during the most important day in his life when he earns a huge & highest amount of money in a single day thus far and finally when Baskar runs away to a different country from India to protect his family and wealth) is just brilliant. This particular metaphor tells us the maturity & brilliance of Venky Atluri as a director.

The best part of the film is the writing and dialogues. The dialogues about middle-class people’s mentality, the relationship between husband and wife, success, failure and greed throughout the film are just first-rate throughout the film. They are hard-hitting, and philosophical & yet very simple to understand & effective. Especially during the conversation between Baskhar and his father, the Bank’s chairman and GM(Sachin Khedekar) are so thought-provoking. It is not an exaggeration to say the film can be watched just for the dialogues. It’s not your fault if you find Trivikram’s flavour in the dialogues.

The first half of the film goes without any major hiccups apart from a couple of dragged-out and not-so-effective sequences, especially the sequence involving Raghu Babu & a cop is a bit dragged. It is in the second half, that the film turns into a thrill-a-moment drama that engages the audience immensely. And, the film ends with a very good climax.

The way Venky Atluri used two different types of endings(i.e., an idealistic ending and a pro-conman ending), and clubbed them together without using unnecessary heroism-elevating sequences is worth a mention. It is as if Venky gives the option to the audiences to select whichever ‘Happy Ending’ they want Baskar to live with for the rest of his life.

Coming to the flip side, the screenplay of the film, although it is engaging for the most part, is too convenient. Bhaskar never faces heavy challenges to come out of tricky and tough situations. Venky and his team would have concentrated more on intelligent screenplay which would have helped to create intense drama. Also, as said earlier, the first half of the film is a bit slow and a couple of not-so-effective sequences in this part would have been edited in a better way.

Overall, Lucky Baskhar is an entertaining film and can be watched happily with family in theatres it has a good chance to work out at the Box Office, not just in Telugu but in other languages as well.

Verdict – Baskhar Is ‘Immensely’ Lucky

Rating: 3/5

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