Lucky: No Time for Love

Plot Outline: Schoolgirl Lucky (Sneha Ullal) and Indian Ambassador in Russia's son Aditya (Salman Khan) meet by accident in what turns out to be one of the most risky days of their lives as they battle insurgency in finding their way back home to safety.

Comment: The Russian locales such as the buildings in St. Petersburg, the graveyard, the train and snow make the movie look like a fairy tale. The story is predictable and the twists get funny at times. When I first saw the promos with Sallu carrying a lifeless and expressionless Sneha and the sub-title "No time for love", I thought that that the movie is love story with a terminally ill girl. Thankfully, this is not the story anyways.

Salman acts his age and looks decent. Newcomer and much publicized Ash-look-alike Sneha looks sweet but devoid of life. Hope Sneha's next movie will put some life in her. Mithun Chakraborthy is a sad bondage to the movie. Adnan Sami's music is fresh and 'Lucky Lips' is a must for your mp3 player.

Rating: 2/5 – Watch out for newcomer Sneha and Adnan's music.

Salman Khan is paired up with Sneha Ullal, a young, pretty starlet who strikingly resembles Aishwarya Rai. The film is set in Russia and narrates their story right from their first encounter through much of what predictable follows on. It is a watchable film which offers nothing special, but it manages to derive much value from Khan's presence and the refreshing pairing with Ullal despite the age differences. Somehow the romance works between them, but the film doesn't. The Russian actors look pretty amateur, and this part of the film doesn't really ring true. Where the film does score big time is in Adnan Sami's fantastic soundtrack. To hear 72-year-old Asha Bhosle's (still phenomenal) voice visualized on 17-year-old Ullal during a very catchy schoolgirl number ("Lucky Lips") is both amusing and quite amazing. I wish one could see Bhosle recording before showing the number in the film. The legendary Lata Mangeshkar, Bhosle's older sister, beautifully renders "Shayad Yahi To Pyar Hai" in a duet with Sami himself. Sonu Nigam excellently performs the modern "Sun Zara", and all the songs have this refreshing quality about them. Sadly, the film never lives up to the level of its music.

So I don't know how the rest of the reviewers are able to get over how damn creepy this movie comes off as. Lucky is 17 supposedly but seemingly acts like she's 12 and it's so cringe worthy to see an old guy like Salman Khan going after her... That's a pretty crazy thing and on the face of it sort of reminds me of Nishabd (which handled this topic SOO much better). It almost feels like it's pandering to immature boys with schoolgirl fetishes. And having it set in Russia I'd think maybe there's a reference to Lolita but this just seems creepy

Songs are quite impressive, movie sequence is good especially liked the way street war/fight shown. Gun shooting sound looks realistic. There is violence in this movie but tolerable. Salman's acting is as usual like a kid, but no overacting hence not boring. Sneha looks like carbon copy of Aishwarya Rai. She looks beautiful but as per her roll she remains like a school girl. Mithun acted quite well but he looks more of joker than intelligence officer. Only thing I disliked is the conversation in Rassian language, at least they should have put subtitles in the movie. Since there are no subtitles, couldn't understood the situations well. Anyway overall movie is quite good and songs too. In songs Adnan Sami has continued his regular tuning and stretched emotions in songs. But "Chori Chori" songs change mood, Sonu Nigam and Alaka Yagnik sung these songs very well. Hope to see Sneha in future movies with much more better appearance.

'Lucky' is not a description, but the name of the female lead in the movie. So much has been written about her looks, Salman Khan's involvement in casting her and the likeness to another blue-eyed beauty from Bollywood that more than anything, it creates a curiosity in Bollywood-followers to watch the movie. A sneaky publicity campaign in the hope of a larger audience? I think so... But the movie itself is not void of any entertainment value. On the contrary, I found ducking into a cinema to watch this movie as quite a wonderful way to get out of traffic on the drive home.

The titular Lucky, as played by débutante Sneha Ullal, is a humble poetry-loving High School student studying in St. Petersburg, Russia. She lives there along with her younger sister & parents - her Dad works at the Indian Embassy. Although an acheiver of good marks, she mis-reads her time-table and ends up studying for a wrong exam. Before leaving home on the fateful day, she prays to God "Please let there be no Exam today". God listens to this favoured disciple in the form of an unexpected wave of insurgency in the Russian city and neighbouring areas, causing the entire area to become a playground for bullets. Caught in-between, she bumps into Aditya (Salman Khan), the son of the Indian Ambassador, and the two take-off into the wilderness for survival. The rest of the movie has us follow the pair as they make their way through woods, poison, army camp, frozen desert, crowded trains, etc - towards their families. Mithun Chakraborty plays an Intelligence Officer (a Colonel, no less) hired by the Ambassador (Aditya's papa) to rescue our hero & heroine.

In tune with Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya, the Khan brothers have again made a movie watchable with the entire family. A very clean and soft movie that has its share of mushy moments, a bit of comedy and a few action sequences. The movie is a little longer than required (especially in the second half), yet does not get boring in any of its parts. Add to that the beautiful scenics of St Petersburg, and you get the equivalent of a summer date-movie for couples fighting off the heat-wave in India.

Salman Khan is his new usual self, acts in a few scenes, jokes in most, fights in some. He is beginning to look old, & maybe he realizes that and plays on it in the movie. Mithun Chakraborty does a 'love him' or 'hate him' turn - and I loved him. This man has a style of his own - and if you have watched his earlier movies (80s), you may laugh, clap and whistle to your heart's content in his sequences, as I did This movie marks the debut of four people. #1 - Sneha Ullal, the Aishwarya look-alike is a little more than just that - not only does she have the beautiful wide-eyes of the beauty but she is an actress of the same degree, i.e., Zero. Yet, for the part that she plays - a naive and super-innocent school-girl with only dreams in her eyes, she is watchable. It's a trend in Popular Indian Cinema to let non-actors make their debut and watch movie after movie of theirs while they learn acting before your very eyes. You just need to look good. And this girl does look cute. But it can get quite tiring when made to stare at her for so long. Also, she looks more like an adopted child than a gene-member of the family her character lives with in the movie.

#2 & 3 are Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru - the directing duo who graduate from Music Videos to Big Screen. As with the director of Karam, these people know how to capture a movie visually, but show their mark only in short sequences of set-pieces. They walk and trip their way through the movie, but thankfully more of the former than the latter. Yet, they could have avoided the whole Kader Khanroutine (an Indian Doctor with Russian kids) - which ends up being a complete waste.

#4 is Adnan Sami as Music Director for a motion picture. He does a wonderful job, and provides beautifully woven melodious numbers that go very well with the movie. None of the songs stick out, but rather blend into the narrative. The opening Asha Bhosle song "Hai Rama Rama" & the Adnan Sami & Lata Mangeshkar duet "Shayad Yehi To Pyaar Hai" stand out among all the good songs as the better ones. But the music director for the background score messes up quite a bit. 'Blaring' is a word that comes to mind.

All in all, a decent movie for Salman & Mithun fans; a passable one for the rest.

My rating ---> 3 of 5