Expectations

Farhan Akhtar made his mark with direction of 'Dil Chahta Hai' followed by 'Lakshya' and 'Don'. He was loved in few films as an actor but hit the bullz eye with the massive success of 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'. After which he has found a niche audience of his own.

Though, most of these movies were bit realistic or franchise and thus failed to work at the box-office. His latest film 'Lucknow Central' has same plot line of recently released 'Qaidi Band', but thanks to its ensemble casting and decent songs the movie has moderate amount of expectations and buzz.

Story

'Lucknow Central' is a story of a small town, aspiring singer Kishen (Farhan Akhtar), who is serving lifetime imprisonment. The victim's family wants Kishen to serve death penalty, thus decides to move his case to high court. Kishen is transferred to Lucknow Central Jail, where he comes to know that local minister (Ravi Kissen) along with the help of an NGO worker Gayatri Kashyap (Diana Penty) wants to form a music band and participate for an Independence Day special program. Kishen seeks this as an opportunity to escape from the jail and thus starts forming his band with the help of his jail mates Victor (Deepak Dobriyal), Dikkat Ansari (Inaamulhaq), Pursushottam Pandit (Rajesh Sharma) and Pariminder (Gippy Garewal). Everything goes ahead as naturally, except for the strict supervision of the jailor Raja Shrivastav (Ronit Roy).

The 'Glitz' Factor

'Lucknow Central' take you inside the dark corridors of the jail and makes you part of it. The movie rightly starts with engaging as well as entertaining scenes. These scenes keep you highly engaged with the film, despite of minor glitches and unconvincing tracks. The thriller part was so well presented that at one point you cannot judge that in which direction this movie will go?

Aseem Arora's dialogues blend perfectly with the flow of the film. The minute details enhance the movie to a different level. The cinematography is good and works in the favour of the film. Music and lyrics are key elements in such films.

In case of 'Lucknow Central', most of the songs work as an additional screenplay. 'Rangdaari' is enjoyable, 'Teen Kabootar' is highly entertaining and 'Meer-E-Kaarwan' is soulful. 'Kaavaan Kaavaan' lifts up the mood of the film. The background music is soothing and goes well with the film.

Director Ranjit Tiwari adds the fine details to his script and presents it in totally engaging as well as entertaining manner. There is a perfect blend of drama, comedy and thriller. His direction is brilliantly supported by good screenplay and some fantastic performances. The actors involved in this film make it look realistic and the engaging story narrative gives the movie mass appeal.

Farhan Akhtar delivers a good performance. Ronit Roy is amazingly outstanding his part. Deepak Dobrial and Inaamulhaq shines out brilliantly in their parts. Rajesh Sharma and Gippy Garewal were fine in their tracks. Ravi Kissen and Virendra Saxena are enjoyable.

The 'Non-Glitz' Factor

The basic story line structure is similar to 'Qaidi Band', as both the movies have been inspired from a real life incident. Some scenes and situations are also replica of each other.

The second half starts on bit stretched note as there are minimal screen happenings. The slow narrative tries to dilute the impact of the film. The finale drama fails to go with the mood of the film, but sums it up properly with the help of final song and heart-felt speech of Farhan Akhtar.

There are a few tracks which are bit cluttered related to Deepak, Gippy and even Diana. If only these parts had more detailing the impact would have been more powerful. Even, the finale part should have been more powerful.

The director should have taken some more time to establish the backstories of other band members followed by some more participation in the finale track.Diana Penty hardly had anything to perform.

Final 'Glitz'

'Lucknow Central' is a good dramatic thriller with some fantastic performance attached to it.

Rating: 3/5