Today, we are looking at a film set in Mumbai that was produced entirely in Telugu. This is a combination that I have not explored before, so it immediately piqued my interest. I have been wanting to explore more of what Indian Cinema has to offer, so studying how the different language-based productions explore other parts of the country is fascinating to me, as was the film itself. Well, it was once I realised that Netflix had defaulted to the Hindi dub, and a quick fix putting back to the original Telugu.
So, to set the scene, it is the 29th of March 1992, and an alarm wakes the house. As he does most days, Baskhar Kumar (Dulquer Salmaan) starts his day off with a run along Mumbai’s coastline. There are many ways to make money in the city because Bombay is the money capital of India. He lives a mostly quiet life until one day, when he is picked up by government officers and taken to the Magadha Bank. He is alleged to have committed bank fraud, a serious offence that could bring his whole family down. But then it is time to jump back to the 11th of August 1989 to find out a humble bank clerk who is in debt to just about everyone got into this position.
Baskhar Kumar hugs his wife. Dulquer Salmaan brings the charisma that you need. Image Credit: Netflix.
One of the things that makes the film work as well as it does is that Dulquer Salmaan imbues Baskhar with a level of empathy that you are kind of ready to go with him when he bends the rules or intelligently masks the truth. A lot of that comes from the performance with the right amount of caution thrown in at every moment, so when he takes risks for his family, you can see how it got to that point.
Then there was the writing, which took the time to establish that he was a person who would give people his last bit of food and go hungry if needed. It is those small touches that help build the character into someone you would be ready to root for. The same can be said for the rest of the cast, such as Sumathi Kumar (Meenakshi Chaudhary), who was right to stand up to her family in those early moments. It is more than just stubbornness and pride; it is a knowing of what is right.
Then, there was the right time to set the film that made the scenario plausible. Setting the movie in the late 80s and early 90s not only gives you a chance to have a distinct visual style. The clothes, the toys, the pop culture references, and it all. It also means that you are okay with the reality that a bank would not have cameras everywhere and capture him in a moment.
There were some quirks with the film that I can’t be sure were intentional or not. One of the familiar musical reframes throughout the film is the song Lucky Baskha. However, the way the song is framed, listening from an English perspective, it sounds like they are calling him a lucky ... It is quite amusing every time it comes on, though now watching the end credits, I assume that was very much intentional.
Actually, reading up on the movie after I finished the review, I found it was so deliberate that they misspelled his name to make the rhyme work, and respect for the commitment to wordplay. Then there was the 4th wall-breaking narration, which I usually don’t like, but I think they made it work.
In the end, do we recommend Lucky Baskha₹? Well, like a lot of Indian Cinema, it is a long film that could have been tightened up quite a bit in the edit. However, there was a charm here throughout that really helped, and I think the ending helped seal the deal. If you liked Lucky Baskha₹, we would recommend to you Extreme Job.