Lucky Star

The debut venture of the famous ad film director Deepu Anthikkad, Lucky Star is a pleasing family entertainer that scores for its subject and treatment. Based on female infertility, the movie manages to travel beyond the subject in an emotional sense.  With some impressive performances and avoidance of cliché at particular melodramatic scenes, the movie manages to convey a message and at the same time provides some entertainment with its light hearted comic sense.

The plot revolves around a tailor who aspired to be an actor and sadly couldn’t make it. Now he plans to go forward by taking some risks and starting a garments factory. The financial situation wasn’t that good and the need for money prompts him and his wife to go for womb rental. The unexpected events that happens to their life after this particular event is basically Lucky Star all about.

Well, the beginning of the movie is quite gentle and when the character of Mukesh (The doctor) was introduced, “Vicky Donor” started to play in the back of my mind. But thankfully the movie only takes the mere idea of infertility from Vicky Donor. The first half of the movie is full of sensible fun elements. The way the wife neglects the emotional binding with the child literally wipes away the melodramatic clichés that makes many films a tiring watch these days. In the second half the movie moves to a serious zone where the ethical questions start to play.  The flaws in this particular phase were covered smartly by some good visuals and the climax scene; where the boy asks his parents an excuse to stay longer in US.

In the making, writer-director Deepu Anthikkad impresses and the highlight was the way he handled the comic portions. In the emotional sequences the director kind of looses his grip basically because of writing. Complicated Malayalam dialogs given to an NRI Malayali who cant even pronounce the words correctly was indeed a flaw and it kills the feeling very much. The skating competition was taken smartly and the flaws are very minor. Vijay Ulaganath’s frames are compact. But each frame had an energy that we usually see in ads. Cuts are fine. The BGM was cool and at times it reminds Tom and Jerry. Music is good. Isthiri Cut is failed attempt to create a viral number and the angry birds song was out of sync. Art direction is impressive.

On screen, Jayaram performs very well as the main protagonist. The character is in his safe zone and he has done it with required perfection. Rachana manages to continue her charming small screen performance in the big screen too. Mukesh is impressive as the doctor. Pooja was just about Satisfactory. The child actor delights the audience with his performance. T G Ravi, Mamukkoya etc are there with some worthy roles along with the director who also plays a small cameo.

Overall, Lucky Star is worth a watch. It can be tagged as an old generation film treated for the new generation. Because it has the look and feel of a typical Malayalam family drama and still some freshness is there. I am giving 3.5/5 for this family drama. They have hidden the flaws smartly.