This is Sachin Joshi's third attempt at becoming a star and it's as unrealistically driven as his earlier two ventures. Director, Kaizad Gustad, infamous for the `Mumbai central' incident and famous for his second film the Jackie and Ayesha Shroff produced `Boom' which had then fresher's Katrina Kaif and Padma Lakshmi displaying their booty with delicious candor, helms this one too. In `Boom' he had Amitabh Bachchan do a whacky turn while in this one he's got Naseeruddin Shah attempting to break stereotype.
`Boom' was ushered out of the theatres even before it's first week run was completed. But the effect on it's two heroines was entirely different. Today Katrina Kaif and Padma lakshmi are well-known stars in their own right. So Sunny Leone, without expecting much from the film itself, is hoping that Kaizad's luck with his heroines will rub off on her too.
Sunny Leone being Sunny Leone, she has to be scantily clad for several sequences- and that goes without saying. After all it's a romantic thriller and romance for Sachin Joshi here is all about singing sensuous numbers and performing erotic love scenes with the next big sex goddess of Bollywood.
`Jackpot,' set entirely in Goa, has a backdrop of sun, sand and casino boats and is meant to be a fast-paced thriller con. But the pace is not smooth it's jumpy and the characterizations are erratic. The film has it's brief moments of comedy with crazy characters to give the few zany one liners some substance.
Jackpot is the name of a famous boat casino, open 24x7. The narrative goes back and forth in time delineating a card game between the lead players in a con. But the players they are trying to con are much smarter and pull a fast one on them. The loss of face leads to trust issues and each one begins suspecting the other of doing them in. A beautiful woman, Maya(Sunny Leone) with a gun, a brief case full of moolah and her romance with Francis(Sachin Joshi) add further intrigue. The casino owner Boss Man(Naseeruddin Shah) is a crazy eccentric who also appears to be bowled over by Maya, is also in the thick of things.
Despite the herculean attempt to make things spicy and interesting, the thrill factor is totally missing. Sunny Leone can look the part of a beautiful sensuous woman quite adequately but convincing us of her acting chops, is another matter. Her expressions are a little too hard and appear vacant and fleeting. It's clear from her past and present `Jism' experience that empathizing with a character is downright difficult for her.
Naseeruddin Shah, comes across as competent but the cruddy half baked character assigned to him, doesn't do him any justice. Daniel Weber, Sunny's husband, does a surprise cameo in the film. The music of the film is decent enough. Toshi and Sharib do well to lend sensuality and heart to the romantic numbers. The cinematography is also quite eye-pleasing. The plotting and the character machinations though, appear a little too ham-handed to curry favor. If you are looking to this misadventure only to salivate over Sunny Leone's considerable assets, then you may not be disappointed. Otherwise just stay away!
Rating: * *
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