Lucky Baskhar, a movie directed by Venky Atluri and released on Diwali, earned 50 crore INR, equivalent to $5.6 million,within its first five days of release. And for good reason. The narration of this story makes an extremely enjoyable watch and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
This story introduces a bank cashier, Baskhar (Dulquer Salmaan), who is in debt to many people in his town, but works extremely hard in an attempt to repay his debt, spoil his wife, Sumathi (Meenakshi Chaudhary), and pay for his siblings’ education. Meenakshi Chaudhary played the role of Sumathi well, but she pales in comparison to Dulquer Salmaan, who portrayed the emotions and mannerisms of the character perfectly.
However, the mounting debt becomes too much for him to handle, and his side business he has with his friend Samba (Rajkumar Kasireddy) doesn’t help. To sustain his modest lifestyle, he needs to get the promotion for a higher position that recently opened up at his bank. In this way Samba was important to set the story in motion, but becomes less relevant towards the end. This disappointed me because showing his character development and reaction to Baskhar’s development could have took the movie to a higher level.
On the day of the promotion announcement, Baskhar enters work to find out the position has been given to someone else, who he and everyone else at work believes isn’t befitting for the position. Nonetheless, there isn’t anything he can do to change this. Out of desperation, Baskhar embarks on a shady deal he received from a man named Antony (Ramki), but needs 2 lakhs INR (2.4k USD), which he can’t afford to give, so he steals from his bank, becoming part of a big money laundering scheme. Although it was disheartening to see an honest and prideful man going to these extents, it’s a stark reminder that many today have to go to similar extents to just survive; this adds on to the well-built message of this movie.
This is where the movie starts to take off, and Baskhar’s quick thinking and wittiness are revealed. His character is extremely well-written, which upheld the entire movie. Something I don’t like seeing in movies, especially Bollywood movies, is that they tend to glamourize and justify the poor actions of the main character simply because he’s the ‘hero’ of the story, although this trope has been changing recently. Throughout this movie, Baskhar’s actions and mistakes aren’t written off as okay, instead, it’s extremely apparent what he does is illegal and very risky.
What I gathered the overall message of this movie to be is one should be wary of the consequences of being too greedy, even with this somewhat cliché message, the message is weaved in a uniquely thrilling manner, creating a rollercoaster-like experience for the viewer. The movie offers an interesting narrative and complex characters, making it a captivating watch.
