Oye Lucky Lucky Oye- A Review

Grade: B+

Possibly the best Hindi film in a long time. Khosla Ka Ghosla I thought was one of the few Hindi films I had seen where it seemed as if the director was actually familiar with the city. This familiarity is actually a rarity in Hindi cinema and generally in modern cinema itself (unlike writing). Most of the time the directors study the prospective surroundings and then make a film set in it. Dibankar Banerjee is obviously an exception, and in fact is somebody who if given a chance, would make films which progressively delve further into the lives of the sort of people, he has grown up with in Delhi. Oye Lucky Lucky Oye after Khosla Ka Ghosla is precisely a step in that direction.
(Heck I have grown up in those areas and I can easily visualize a couple more films filled with all the details of those places and its citizens. And that might still not be enough)


Letting the city be the leading character in a film is amounting to blasphemy in Hindi cinema unless of course it is the mafia infested areas of Mumbai. This movie serves as a perfect example for why Slumdog is a mediocre and superficial film and I am glad this film released this quickly after Slumdog. This film is a remarkably accurate and more importantly a detailed study about the people in the middle class parts of the Delhi. Dibankar himself is one of them and he does not hold anything back portraying these people. To me the most exciting parts of the film were the character studies of Gogi and Mr Hooda and its implications. Let me elaborate on this more:

After watching Khosla Ka Ghosla I was very sure that Dibankar had very little clue about actual criminals(the property dealer)and their lives. This belief was reaffirmed with the portrayal of the character of Gogi in this film. And I like that about Dibankar. If he doesn't know the world of certain set of people it immediately comes across on the screen as forced and inauthentic. He usually tries to conquer it by infesting the characters with comical menace which allows him to put in some comical dialogues/scenes and exaggerated physical gestures (Boman Irani scratching his balls, Paresh Rawal in the Goodfellas scene). But the hurry in which he wants to exit out of this world is evident on the screen.

It is in portraying the Mr Hooda type of criminal where he excels. This is the type of criminal he has seen and the type we usually encounter in our lives. The good news about all this:
Dibankar might actually make a film in the future where he will simply have no characters or situations that he is just not familiar with. And this might mean joy for us as an audience and him on his way to becoming a great film maker (yes he will be great even if he sticks to the "meter").


Dibankar still sticks to what I call the "meter" (something I dislike;more about it in some other post) but I am willing to excuse him. The music is outstanding and he makes wonderful use of it. Hindi film producers are definitely coming of age regarding how the director wants to use music in their films (maybe its just UTV Spotboy). The dialogues are very well written and there is appropriate restraint to avoid the scenes from becoming overtly and unneccesarily comical. The screen play other than the Gogi part is wonderful and it emphasizes that its never about only the story but its also about the characters and their thoughts and actions. The actors have all played their characters really well. Its truly an excellent ensemble performance and there is no bigger compliment that I can offer to the actors. The production quality is excellent and it goes to show how skillful the entire crew is.

Its a film I will definitely rewatch and maybe buy one day.

PS: If Dibankar were to tell me that he's making a film with an "irreverence for the meter" I will be the first one to watch it.