'Good Luck Sakhi' is playing in theatres. Let's find out what are its hits and misses:
Story
Sakhi (Keerthy Suresh) is a carefree girl in a Chittoor village with no aim in life. Her hidden talent is that she is very good at shooting. Her longtime friend Goli Raju (Aadhi Pinisetty) motivates her to become a rifle-shooter under the tutelage of Colonel (Jagapathi Babu). But Suri (Rahul Ramakrishna), a lecherous fellow, has other plans.
Performances
A film of this genre must belong to the performers. For, there is not much going for a semi-sports film. We have seen it all in the past. Keerthy Suresh, who won the National Award for 'Mahanati', is watchable for the most part and enjoyable here and there. But there is only so much that you can say about her.
Jagapathi Babu is not routine but his stiffness doesn't look original at all. Aadhi Pinisetty is able, while Rahul Ramakrishna is really below-average. Raghu Babu's brief comedy is hardly funny. Venugopal, Shravya Varma and others have nothing much to do.
Technical aspects
Devi Sri Prasad's music makes this film lively, to a very limited extent. The screenplay needed good pacing and DSP's creativity instills life into several dull moments. A Sreekar Prasad has edited the movie. The sports scenes have been edited in a shoddy manner. Chirantan Das's cinematography is functional.
Analysis
The idea for the story of this film admittedly emerged when director Nagesh Kukunoor came across a news clipping of shooters Chandro Tomar and Prakashi Tomar in the year 2010 or so. A scene actually refers to the same. The director, who is known for 'Iqbal' (Hindi) and 'Hyderabad Blues', was expected to weave an engaging story around the idea. But he fails to do that comprehensively.
Most semi-sports films are devoid of novel elements. There is a motivational monologue and a conflict plot point that emerges from a misunderstanding or something. The recent sports actioner 'Lakshya', starring Naga Shaurya, toyed with this routine template. 'Good Luck Sakhi', too, does just that and nothing more.
In fact, 'Lakshya' was at least better. It had expansive visuals and the characterizations didn't seem like they were lifted from a short film or an Indie outing. 'Good Luck Sakhi' doesn't get even the basics right. The pacing is so sluggish that, even at less than 2 hours, it looks inordinately long.
The climax has a light-veined stretch involving Aadhi's character. It also has a serious stretch involving Sakhi and her trainer. The whole farce is really amateurish when it is not predictable.
Closing Remarks
'Good Luck Sakhi' falls flat. It's an avoidable film in every sense.
