Cast: Sunny Leone, Sachiin J Joshi, Naseeruddin Shah, Makrand Deshpande, Bharath Niwas,Elvis Mascarenhas
Directed By Kaizad Gustad
Rating: 1/2
In addition to mainstream genres of movie making, over the years numerous sub-genres have emerged in Bollywood further extending the scope of mainstream movie. One such approach which is yet to take a full-fledged shape in Bollywood is “Noire cinema” or Hollywood styled crime dramas. And as our tinsel town cine wizards have by now become habitual of trying their hands in other’s fiefdom, hence they don’t let go any effort of getting inspired from the western cinema. So seems to be the case with Kaizad Gustad’s recent cine tryout “Jackpot”.
Any how so far we have seen that mere mention of Sunny Leone and her prurience is potent enough to make anything pertaining to this sensuality icon a talked about affair. Be it her Bigg Boss stint her maiden cine jaunt “Jism 2” or her item numbers, everything associated with this gorgeous damsel has conveniently managed to stir the grapevine thoroughly.
After so many big and small showbiz stints this time Sunny has teamed up with maverick cine wizard Kaizad Gustad, who is making a comeback of a sort and has casted former with with Sachiin Joshi and magnificent thespian Naseeruddin Shah in his so called fast paced crime thriller “Jackpot”. At its opening despite the presence of sultry damsel Sunny Jackpot could not pull many on the ticket idow and could only open with an average occupancy of 15 %.
Painted on the backdrop of coastal state of Goa, plot of “Jackpot” narrates the story of, Boss the owner of a boat casino, his casino manager Maya ( Sunny Leone) and three small time swindler, who call themselves the con artists, and their boom-ranged con plan.
As soon as the premise of “Jackpot” takes off it showcases that how Boss, Francis (Sachin Joshi), Maya, Anthony (Bharath Niwas) and Kirti (Elvis Mascarenhas) hatches a plan to win a Jackpot worth 5 crore from the casino of Boss by unfair means and have the prize money robbed subsequently, in order to claim a pay back from the insurance company.
Soon after Anthony wins the prize money, Francis flees away with the same from the boat casino, but to everybody’s surprise briefcase turns out to be empty, when Francis opens it. And from there begins a game of doubt and blaming each other for the disaster.
Undoubtedly Kaizad has always tried to make the movies with somewhat “out-of-the-box concept beneath them, but at the same time there is no denying the fact that this ace cine-magician has many a times failed in his efforts and movies like “Boom” are few of the conspicuous examples of the fact. Besides this there is another factor which delineate routine cine affairs from elite league of “out-the-box” cine delights is captivating coefficient of the latter ilk, but unfortunately in “Jackpot” nothing of that sort comes into play.
As far as script of “Jackpot” is concerned then the movie’s completely an ill tailored saga which firmly keeps on oscillating between the poles of confusion and ambiguity. Although in his writing attempt Gustad has tried to craft “Jackpot” as a fast paced suspense thriller, but this effort of Gustad, where he has tried to sew so many flavors in one thread has gone in vein, which leaves viewers in the quagmire of confusion, from which audience through out the run-time of the movie attempts to escape.
In fact it won’t be wrong to say that while penning the narration of “Jackpot” Kaizad has not deployed even an iota of intelligence in developing a captivating premise. And the thing which adds to the ongoing disaster is the shabby premise which from the very first frame starts nosediving towards a disastrous end. Even the flow of narration of “Jackpot” keeps on badly crumbling through out the run time that it completely fails in keeping viewers attention glued to big screen.
Although in the screenplay by embedding the one-liners, Kaizad has tried to make “Jackpot” an engrossing cine saga, but even this endeavor of Kaizad makes “Jackpot” even a more complicated cine tale swamped in the morass of confusion.
Or in other words it won’t be wrong to say that, despite deploying so many cine skills Gustad has thoroughly failed in communicating his frame of mind to the audience. And besides this another thing which emerges as an embarrassment for the writing domain are dialogues which methodically lacks expressiveness, so no words of praise for Kaizad and Amol Parashar for writing such bland dialogues.
But yeah, the thing which up-till an extent had been a “grace saving” component is DOP, which captures the milieu of Goa with thorough adroitness. And in the absence of a captivating screenplay and clumsy script even editing of Yasser Abbas fails in doing any miracle for the movie.
As far as music of “Jackpot” is concerned then except “Kabhi Jo Baadal Barse” entire music bunch of Jackpot is totally tasteless.
In the performance department despite being the main lead of the movie Sachiin fails miserably in creating the aura of leading protagonists around him. If we compare sensual seductress Sunny’s performance in “Jackpot” with her previous cine stint, then certainly she has improved up-till an extent, but she still needs to swot a lot if she really wants to keep herself surviving as the mainstream actress in the Bollywood.
But the man whose proved acting fineness seems to be getting wasted in “Jackpot” is that of ace thespian Naseerudding Shah, who through-out the run time of the movie tries to save this otherwise sinking ship by his acting prowess. In nutshell, it was only Naseeruddin Shah who emerges as an stand out performer. As far as supporting cast is concerned then except, Makrand Deshpande who succeeds in registering his presence, rest of the cast comprising Bharath Niwas, Elvis Mascarenhas looks no less than a liability for the movie.
Talking about the BO potential of “Jackpot” is something too peculiar to discuss, but as it is customary part of movie reviewing then all that can be said about the the earning potential of “Jackpot” is that with nothing great in the offering the movie is expected to badly crawl on the BO before reaching its calamitous end.
To sum up, with not even a single grace saving component assembled in it, “Jackpot” is one of the biggest disaster of 2013, which has kicked aside all other disastrous movies of the year to emerge as the topper of the league. And for all those who somewhere down the line foster a wish to watch “Jackpot”, it is suggested that if you are eager to torture yourself, then there are numerous other ways of traumatizing to do so, hence try them instead of watching “Jackpot”.