It is a business of betting. A group of lucky people are who in dire need of money are randomly selected by a betting syndicate based in South Africa. They are promised loads of money in different levels of the betting game. Like it happens always, this betting syndicate is run by a baddie in the form of Moussa (Sanjay Dutt) who has been super lucky all his life. His ‘recruitment drive’ for lucky people from India or sub-continent is looked after by Tamang (Danny Dengzongpa) who has the wily knack of tracking people who can be used to mint millions using their luck factor. There is a banker (Imran Khan), a serial killer (Ravi Kishen), a major (Mithun Chakraborty), a camel jockey (Chitrashi Rawat of ‘Chak De’ fame) among many others who make it to the ‘betting World Cup’ in South Africa.

The group lands in South Africa only to find the game getting deadly by the day (they kill each other in the first round). Then there is Shruti Haasan in the gang. She is psyched by Ravi Kishen while Imran Khan tries to woo her. As the betting game gets deadlier, the plot gets out of hand, and ends on a pathetic note — hero and heroine triumph against toughest of odds.

The whole movie lacks script or a direction. It is like a rich producer has given loads of cash to the director and asked him to do whatever he wants. Beats me how in 2009 Bollywood can make such crappy movies. The only saving grace of the movie is Danny who does justice to his role. Ageing Sanjay Dutt appears in bits and pieces, and it is almost like he is attending court hearings once in a while. He is neither menacing, not convincing.

Imran Khan again disappoints with his acting. He is yet to get over ‘Kidnap’ hangover. Debutant Shruti Haasan’s major task is limited to skin show and no much scope to judge her acting skills. Mithun overacts and is too loud at times.

With second half of the movie mostly shot in South Africa, it looks like ‘Luck’ was partly sponsored by the tourism department of South Africa. In a scene where the camel race is shown somewhere in Pakistan, the flag of Pakistan is all green with no sign of the white patch. Blunder is not the word. The girl camel jockey is referred to as poor, but is wearing hep and trendy clothes.

I do believe I ran out of luck yesterday to watch this pathetic movie. Even fully faltoo movies like ‘Golmaal Returns’ and ‘Welcome’ had some entertainment value, but not this. There is a general feeling that Bollywood is coming up with thought provoking and non-formula movies these days. But, ‘Luck’ is one more black mark in that direction.

‘Luck‘, what the f**k.