Lucky Baskhar - Bombay Dreams

 

Movie: Lucky Baskhar

Year: 2024

Language: Telugu

Director: Venky Atluri

Stars: Dulquer Salmaan, Meenakshi Chaudary, Ramki, Hyper Adi, Sai Kumar, Tinnu Anand

Mohan's Measure: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love the color and texture of the cinematography of Lucky Baskhar.  Set in the early 90s, the director should be given kudos for capturing the fashions and lifestyle of Gen X yuppies. But, these are yuppies in an India which no longer exists, ones who witnessed before their eyes the rapid decline of the middle class worldwide, and the illegal activities of the nefarious Harshad Mehta.

Lucky Baskhar cleverly brings him in as Harsha Mehra, a faceless character and tells the tale of how, perhaps only by providence, a low end bank fraudster brings him down.  Dulquer Salmaan steals the  show in playing the title character, the music, and his winks and smirks very reminiscent of the characters in the British TV series Hustle.  His crimes are minor, aruguably even ignorable, until he gets in with the cons who work for Mehra.  The big game comes with big lessons.

Ms. Chaudary does a fair job playing his wife, but the actor who impressed me is Ramki, taking on his comeback as Baskhar's middle man and mentor.

In as much as Lucky Baskhar is movie about cons and con-artists, it has at its roots messages about family and morality that raise questions to a man whose sudden luck just doesn't seem to run out.  That is until he finds that when it comes to the intangibles, he has been truly lucky all along.

Feel lucky yourself.  See Lucky Baskhar.