Lucky Star Review

Generally, a film designed as the launch vehicle for a new face always happens to be a love story. But here in Deepu Anthikkad's `Lucky Star' ,the launch movie of popular TV Star Rachana Narayanankutty, it's all about how an abandoned child  bring a sea change in the life of his proxy  parents. An experienced ad director who got enough of grooming under the likes of directors like Sathyan Anthikkad, debutante director Deepu Anthikkad very well displays his finesse as a filmmaker who is poised to go distances, with this `Lucky Star' .A perfect family drama, but packaged in the new age making patterns , the movie will also end Jayaram's long lookout for a solo hit.

The movie which tells a tale spanning seven years, has Jayaram as Ranjith, a small time tailor running a shop at Chennai, mostly stitching costumes for movies. His small family is composed of very practical wife Janaki(Rachana) who was once a junior artist and their  only daughter, Megha. With his own share of plans for becoming rich, starting a garment unit, and sending his daughter to the area's best  school, Ranjith is waiting for  a big fortune in the form of bank loans which delays as usual .  But as one IVF specialist, John Chitillapally(Mukesh) comes up with an offer of ten lakhs for a surrogate mother to groom the foetus of  a American based couple,  Janaki herself  take up the deal as a means to clear off their immediate financial problems and to live a life as expected. The NRI couple pays them half the amount as advance and agrees to return after the birth of the baby. But soon after the birth of the child, Ranjith and Janaki are perplexed to hear that the parents of the new born baby are not poised to return as they have already split up and have lost interest on the baby.  What Renjith  and Janaki plans to do with the new born forms the rest of the film.
                             
Deepu Anthikkad has fairly succeeded in creating a perfect and neat family film around a very few major characters. The director, maintaining the graph of making an easy-on-your-senses film, deliberately keeps the pace low in the initial reels which seems to have worked out quite well for him in the later half. Though the goings-on cannot maintain the energy consistently, it often gathers momentum and is not that predictable as usual. His narrative tricks connecting the different blocks are amusing and to the point. Though the writer had the opportunity to make a real rib-tickling comic fare, what appears on screen is reasonably fair, which would've crumbled in the hands of lesser talent.
                           
Jayaram is earnest, delivering a cool performance. He underplays his part beautifully, not going overboard one bit, which was the need of the hour. Rachana has the best of the role for a fine launch in this movie, a livewire who adds to the chuckles with her unpredictable nature and decisions. She looks fresh just as in her TV shows, and has a great comic timing and handles her part magnificently. Together, they elevate the film a few notches above the ordinary. Mukesh is remarkable, especially in the sequences where they go in search of a surrogate woman.
 
The film works because the makers doesn't manipulate us with unnecessary melodrama and even the sub-plots get over before the viewer feels exhausted. The climax too would've made an impact, had the makers avoided forced twists in an attempt to avoid predictability.

Just as with his ad films, Deepu has been able to get the maximum out of his technical crew for this `Lucky Star'. Ratheesh Wega's  music is easy on the ears and his BG scores are excellent . Vijay Ulaganath's cinematography is topnotch giving a chick look to the film as he captures Chennai beautifully.
 
On the whole, `Lucky Star'  is an absorbing fare for family viewers, with some decent sequecnes. A light-hearted entertainer that's an easy watch.
 
Rating-7.5/10