Lucknow Central

LUCKNOW CENTRAL is a bland jail-escape drama!

Nearly 2.5 hours long, LUCKNOW CENTRAL offers nothing new in terms of story or storytelling. With scenes ranging from clichéd to predictable, all it manages to do, is to not be boring. While it’s definitely watchable, I don’t really recommend it!

After being accused of murder, Kishen Mohan Girhotra (Farhan Akhtar) is thrown inside the Lucknow Central Jail, where he awaits death penalty. While serving his sentence at the prison, Gayatri Kashyap (Diana Penty), an NGO worker, visits the jail with the idea of holding a band competition in order to form a Band of Prisoners. Kishen sees the competition as an opportunity to escape from the prison. In his quest to escape, he befriends four other inmates and lays down his escape plan, convincing them to join the band.

When you have an intelligent actor at the helm of affairs (Farhan Akhtar in this case), you do expect the proceedings to be deviating from norms set by the hoi-polloi of the industry. But this film is totally formulaic, right from the word go, which is exactly what’s disappointing here. The film lacks freshness, it lacks surprises, and it totally lacks that factor which induces us to watch this film at all in the first place. Sure, you won’t be bored watching it, but it never enriches you in any way either. The jail scenes lack originality, and so does the whole plot. Even the music is quite dull, which is ironical given the film is about the protagonist’s dream to form a music band. The writing and direction, both needed a fresh outlook to make this film engaging. The film keeps you involved throughout, but eventually you feel it’s just too futile an effort.

The performances are just passable. Farhan Akhtar brings nothing new, owing to the insipidness of the script. Ronit Roy needs to break his stereotypical image finally, and I hope this is the last time we see him in this avatar. All others are okay. Even fine actors like Deepak Dobriyal and Rajesh Sharma are wasted. Ravi Kishan is the only one who brings smiles to your faces for the brief period he appears on screen.

If just killing a few hours with your family/friends over the weekend defines your movie watching outing, then you may sure go ahead and spend 150 minutes watching this. But if the idea is to spend these hours watching something fun or enriching, I urge you to make other plans instead. Watchable, but in your absolutely free time!