Movie Review: Luck by Chance
Date - 08/03/2026
Release Year: 2009
Themes: Drama, Satire, Bollywood, Nepotism, Ambition
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap
BEST DIALOGUES
Aa film institute! Tere festival ke liye picture nahi bana raha hu main.
Bhai sahab jabalpur ki line mey to chaku chal gaye, ek aadmi ka to khoon hi hogaya… cheers to that bhai, cheers to that.
Rolly uncle you're like a father to me.
HOW I FOUND IT
I came to this one through a random Reddit thread. I’d always known the song Sapno Se Bhare Naina but somehow never got around to watching the film itself. Going in, I assumed it would be a fairly straightforward story about a struggling actor trying to find work in Bollywood. It’s that, but it’s a lot more than that.
AHEAD OF ITS TIME
What surprised me most is how ahead of its time it is. The film openly takes on nepotism in the film industry — and the funny part is, this was made by Zoya Akhtar in 2009. These were conversations India wasn’t really having publicly until almost a decade later. The fact that she made this film, about this industry, with this much honesty, says a lot.
THE CRAFT
The storytelling is sharp and the satire lands well. Most of the scenes involving Rishi Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap are genuinely funny — the kind of funny that also makes you cringe a little because it feels so real.
The cameos across the film are one of its best features. They don’t feel random or thrown in for the sake of it — they feel wisely placed, like each one is actually serving the story.
The pacing holds up across all 155 minutes. I was never really able to predict what the next scene would bring — it had moments that were fun and breezy, and then moments that hit harder emotionally. Sona’s character development is one of the highlights, and SRK’s cameo was excellent.
ONE LOOSE THREAD
If there’s one thing I’d have wanted more of, it’s some closure around Vikram’s friend Abhimanyu. His arc just kind of trails off, and it felt like it deserved a proper ending.
VERDICT
Overall, Luck by Chance feels unique in its plot — there isn’t really anything else quite like it — but it also carries that old Bollywood charm of films that don’t feel pretentious. Anyone who likes good cinema will love it.