User Reviews

I must start with the admission that the Only reason I wanted to watch this film was my curiosity...I needed to know what Salman Khan's home production would do with an Aishwarya dupe. The movie was fine, I rated it 6/10

****Spoilers!!****

The movie was sharply edited, the story crisp. Expect some clichés, tried-n-tested stock characters and weepy maudlin scenes. I liked the impeccable cinematography and tiny new twists to the familiar story line. For instance: its about Indians abroad but thank heavens, it does not move to Punjab half-way through; no seedy and pointless villains; no discomforting jingoism; the protagonist Adi (Salman) does not spout odiously saccharine lines from the start; he (thank god) does not have that mandatory scene with the girl's mum and neither's parents are dead-set against the lovers.

Basically a school-girl fantasy come true, I expect the girls back home will make it a hit. I was leery about an obviously aging, haggard, lived-a-rough-life Salman paired with a girl (Sneha Ullal) who looks like a school kid. However both were at ease with each others roles, the supporting cast was adequate.

I would like to make a mention of the fact that while the movie itself was not a fabulous, criterion collection material, I felt the Directors did a good job in presenting it. It's a well-made product. The story was told well, the cast did a reasonably good job, it looked great! I'll keep an eye out for their next one. And Oh, Sneha Ullal does bear an uncanny resemblance to Aishwarya Rai, her make-up and wardrobe were clearly chosen carefully to enhance that effect.

As far as subliminal messages go, to a bollywood gossip enthusiast, there were many things to read between the lines. When they first meet, the girl insists she doesn't have a boyfriend, she isn't "that kind of a girl" and so on, to which the protagonist replies in a very jaded manner...yes, I've heard that before. When she then asks him to trust her, he says..."bharoosa kiya". Hmmm, in Hindi that could either mean, I trust you or I had trusted you. Wheee, my gossipy heart rejoiced...just as I had hoped. Later she berates him for not knowing how to talk to a girl. To paraphrase he says, "Well, I say...it was my fault, bye". Ahem! I will say this, one could not but notice, the Protagonist never once expressly declares his love for the girl, even right at the end. The story teases it out and one is left to fill in the blanks. I'll leave the rest for fellow enthusiasts to discover.

I must confess that from the very instant I heard of this film I really truly wanted to see it very much. However once I actually got my hands on a copy of this film, I was sadly quite disappointed.

First of all I had heard a lot about the fresh-faced young Sneha Ullal and how much she resembled the reigning Queen of Bollywood, the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai, and so I was quite anxious to watch her for the first time. First of all Sneha Ullal is supposed to be around seventeen or eighteen when she made this film and her character Lucky is supposed to be seventeen years old, however Sneha looks like a thirteen year old. Secondly whenever a new fresh face is introduced into any film industry, the expectations are relatively high. Sadly Sneha Ullal did not meet these expectations. Instead of getting the audience interested in her, she quite frankly bores her audience out of their skulls. She fails to make any kind of impact in her role as Lucky and her debut performance could be summed up as utterly, dull, wooden, dead, lifeless, emotionless, weak, awkward and forgettable not to mention ineffective. She constantly looks bored out of her mind herself from the very beginning of the film right till the very end, as if she were being forced to be there on the set of the film. There is no passion, no life, no emotion or feeling whatsoever behind her "acting." Sneha would also do quite well to take some major acting lessons and classes before she even attempts to take on another role. Her performance or lack thereof was simply tedious, and did not do anything for me whatsoever. She looks out of place and her inexperience and discomfort in front of the camera shows all too obviously.

Coming to the topic of Salman Khan, I must say that the only saving grace of this film was Salman Khan's performance. One can tell right away that he put a lot of passion and effort and gave his all into portraying his role of Aditya! As opposed to Sneha's highly weak performance, Salman delivers, he is sexy, handsome, charming, hunky, suave, charismatic and very likable. He embodies the kind of older man who every young girl would find attractive and would fall in love with. However once again Salman didn't have much to work with due to the very poorly developed love story of the film and therefore could not use or display his full potential as an actor but still did quite excellently with what he was given to work with.

Moving on to the subject matter of the love story itself, Lucky, is first and above all a love story. Or rather one should say that it is supposed to be a love story. One reason why this film failed to achieve the high expectations which it set up for itself was because of the fact that the director failed to write a captivating love story. First of all what does Lucky possess that would make a much older and much more experienced and mature man such as Adi fall instantly under her spell? Unfortunately, the answer, due to Sneha's very poor acting and lifeless demeanor, is NOTHING. Apart from acting incredibly child-like, naive and innocent, Sneha cannot do much at all. Even when acting like a cute and naive little girl, one feels that it could have been done five times more effectively. In short the heroine has absolutely nothing to peak the interest of the hero and make him fall in love with her. While it is however understandable why a young girl, Lucky's age would fall in love with Salman's character. The love story is odd, we don't get a sense of how Adi's feelings for Lucky began to emerge or deepen, but rather before we know it, they're just suddenly in love! The love happens far too quickly and the director doesn't give us any time to be able to stop and grasp that love is happening between these two individuals.

Lastly coming to the concept of the terrorism in Russia. Once again, the concept of the film was quite good but the director just failed to execute the concept behind it properly. Why are these terrorists attacking the country and bombing everything in sight? What do they want? What is going on in the country? We do not really get a good sense of the answers to these questions. Therefore when Adi and Lucky are separated we cannot become intertwined and lost within their love as we would like to.

That being said, the direction and the sets and locations were beautiful especially during the songs. I particularly liked the song "Sun Zara" but that was once again due to Salman Khan's very good acting and emotion. But I did not like "Lucky Lips" and that was once again due to Sneha's very boring and ridiculous performance, the heroine's number which is intended to give the spotlight on over to the film's heroine was completely wasted on Sneha. Also Lucky's friends, Padma, Sunaina and the other girl as well were also just God awful actresses as well. Did I mention that none of the Russian spoken in the film is subtitled?! That was poorly done and quite ridiculous. I despised every time that the actors spoke in Russian because we were completely oblivious as to what the hell was going on.

All in all, I was sadly very disappointed with Lucky: No Time For Love. In short Lucky is a film which was very ambitious but failed at reaching its aim. I give this film a 5/10, and that's all for Salman Khan's very good acting and the beauty of the sets. My take on this movie is, if you are a true fan of Salman Khan, then you should see it, but otherwise its not really worth your time.

I found it very enjoyable. Why? Because unlike some people who left negative comments here, I never took the story seriously. With Bollywood films, you can't. Most of them are fantasy and should be seen as such. Stunning landscapes, good looking actors and actresses, nice music... what else do you need? It was interesting for me to see how people from other cultures portray my homeland. Much friendlier than Hollywood does, by the way! I don't think at all that this film was in any way racist. Yes, the rapist was Russian, and so what? If we are honest, just try to go alone in a park in a big modern Russian city - how many chances are there that nothing will happen to you? Most of us wouldn't chance it (Russia wasn't always like that, but that's another story). SPB (St. Petersburg) is well known for racist attacks at present, so the film was a lot prettier on this issue that it could have been. I must say though I had to laugh when one moment it was summer in the film and the next moment - deep snow all around, and again the next moment- summer again! But it didn't spoil the overall impression.

I'm amazed that so many people have liked this film. It opens with a huge disclaimer that any character bearing any resemblance to a real person is purely coincidental. Since such words are normally placed at the end of a film, it's pretty obvious that there is no coincidence at all. Sneha looks just like Aishwaria Rai, and since she can't act at all, she must have been chosen for her looks. And we all know why....

Although the views of St. Petersburg are stunning, the plot is stupid and completely unbelievable. *SPOILER* In one scene, Adi (Salman Khan) asks a stranger for help. The stranger insists on payment. Adi gives him all his money, but the stranger wants more. The stranger wants the expensive sports car too, so Adi gives him the keys. Then the stranger takes Adi and Lucky (Sheha) to his father who is a doctor. No attempt is made to get the car back even though it would have been easy to do so...

This film was made for young girls who fancy Salman Khan and to give them the fantasy that SK could go for a girl half his age. For anyone else, this film is a huge waste of time....

I thought the movie was unpretentious , cute and enjoyable!! It didn't want to be a masterpiece and I'm OK with that. Salman acted quiet well and has good comic timing, moreover, he looks better with age! A thespian he isn't but is pretty tolerable in movies like this .Sneha was really cute and has that special something about her on screen, her acting was not much to write home about, but then her character didn't require much acting either . She has screen presence, evident even in a movie like this, and more so than I expected from the promos. Mithun- he was funny @ times( when parodying old Hindi film dialogs), although he was OTT too!

The songs were VERY well picturised, the romantic moments between the lead pair were well done with requisite amounts of angst and didn't leave one with an uneasy feeling at all ( despite the age gap). They had good chemistry together on screen . The cinematography was awesome, the screenplay was OK in parts. There was suspension of disbelief involved but a good movie( like this one) should make the viewers WANT to suspend disbelief rather than make them irritated. The movie was well directed on the whole .All in all, a nice 2 hours 17 minutes at the cinema..

LUCKY NO TIME FOR LOVE is a decent romantic film, about a 40 Salman(perhaps he is younger in the film) and a school kid, no this is not about a padeophilie nor the film goes the NISHABD, CHEENI KUM way yet the romantic moments are well handled The first half gets boring with continious chater between Salman and Sneha Ullal, the second half gets better but the pace gets slow But the scenes when Salman and Sneha gets caught by terrorists till the end are well handled, but the culmination is clichéd. Also how does Mithun reach at the right time every time remains a mystery

Direction is decent Music is nice, Jaan meri, Shahyed Yehi and other songs are melidious

Salman Khan repeats his act initially and does overact at times but does superb in emotional scenes, Sneha Ullal is okay in her debut Mithun's role seems add on but he is okay, Vikram Gokhale and others are okay

All I will say is I wanted to watch this as an adult cause the songs have never left me. Then quickly I realized she is only 17 and he is atleast in college or later age? Then in reality I learnt that she WAS 17 and he was 40! She is cute and most likely could have had better coaching, especially for her voice. I have never seen her in anything else but I am writing this in 2023 and she is only 35! This movie 17 years old, so I'm sure she's made a career. Also wierd to learn that I always thought Katrina-alike was found by Salman, but never realized he did that with Ash too. I have never cared for his movies post 2000. I do wish they casted someone older cause the acting would have made the story probably stronger but I am glad they stayed low key with her character because she is too young to have been too involved as a character.

Omg came back to say why the heck did he have to carry her everywhere. Legit he had a gunshot wound on his arm, had been lying unconscious in the snow for awhile, and has not eaten in days and she just stars blinking and falling ALOT, and he Carries her. The ending was not greatly explained. This didn't hit my last nerve until they rushed the ending with Mithuns character, who apparently not only found the but also his car from where he was in the middle of nowhere. Y'all, why does bollywood do this! Story could have been decent. Omg writing this while watching, the last dialogue she says! When he says ghar challe, she says, "yes but not mine, yours". Girls ready to get married but she isn't even 18. While this happens, why gotta glamorize it? Also I have always ignored that in every song she slowly bows to him, slide down his side to be lower, like who choreographed some of those things? It's cute when done once or twice, but with all ^ this context, No no no. Not a movie to show young girls.

Yep, this time he sinks to the most ultimate low by casting newcomer Sneha Ullal (the most legitimate dead-ringer for Aishwarya Rai in Bollywood to date) as his leading lady in this mostly sleepy drama about Indians trapped in Russia when a war breaks out. Ullal plays a 16-year-old school girl who manages to win the affection of one of her classmate's boyfriend(the boyfriend is played by Salman Khan) when she narrowly escapes the clutches of a pedophile and hides in Khan's car for safety. It is during this escapade that the war intensifies, trapping everybody wherever they presently are. The rest of the film is about the relationship forms between Khan and Ullal during this ordeal, and what their parents on both sides do to try and ensure their safety. Ullal doesn't make much of her debut and manages to ruin Asha Bhosle's perfect 'Lucky Lips' sexy ditty. Khan is obviously fantasizing about the one that got away whenever he shares the screen with this underage substitute.

I watched this movie when it first came out as a teenager and loved it: it as my fantasy come true, beautiful to look at, had an awesome musical score and starred Salman Khan which pretty much guaranteed my bias toward it!! Watching it again today I have a newfound appreciation for it as a unique film (for the industry it was made in at least) and as a good film, in fact it is now officially one of my favourites.

The film is unusual for Hindi cinema in the sense that its plot driven (a more Hollywood feature) as opposed to emotionally driven. Hindi films seem to take a lot from Romanticism ideals with the plot being driven by the larger than life characters irrational and spontaneous emotions. Lucky is thus a distinguished film: the two protagonists are if anything ordinary, thrown into extra-ordinary circumstances which bring out their emotions and eventually changes them.

This brings me to another point; its is difficult to put this film into any genre at all, it balances between action and romance. I personally think of it as a fairytale following the journey of two characters during which they come to mean something very special to one another.

Seeing as the love story was not the dominating focus and very subtle I can see why the Indian audience was not very receptive to the film. It's not a "masala" film as one would expect a Salman Khan film to be: yes its mounted on a grand canvas, has commercial music and is peppered with some masala moments (they don't detract from the film)but the emotion typically depicted in Hindi films is not there in a melodramatic fashion and has to be actually looked for and pondered.

The film makes great use of a fairytale motiff, once again unusual for a Hindi film and will go over the top of a viewers head if they are unfamiliar with fairy tales. There is great use of symbology with what characters say at the beginning being repeated toward the end and a very subtle link between the songs Aa ke bharlo and Chori Chori.

Salman khan gives an awesome performance, very subtley mainly through his expressions showing the change that comes about in the very charming character of Aditya Sekhri. Sneha Ullal acts well, i'll admit her crying scenes left me in want (one star off) but overall for a newcomer completely foreign to the industry she does well and suits the character to the tee, however the change that comes about in her character Lucky is seen more through action than her expression.

As its already been established the cinematography is brilliant. The music topped the charts with good reason but is enhanced by its placement in the film or rather the songs enhance the film; not a single song sticks out. The direction is great and the film is well edited with nothing seeming unnecessary or prolonged.

The action of the film begins with "Ghar chale" and ends with it also, but the two characters are not the same at the end. As Salman Khan described the film is about growing up; not just for Lucky but for Aditya also. I personally enjoyed watching the characters grow up under the pressure of the circumstances: Aditya blossoms from a selfish "manchild" of sorts into a sensitive man watch when he offers to beg the doctor and you'll know that he hasn't done it for anyone else but Lucky whilst Lucky blossoms from the shy dreamer into a young woman; another standout and symbolic scene where she embraces her childhood in the form of the child and her subsequent escape from the train is something she initially would not have done alone.

On a ending note there's quite a fuss about whether Aditya actually loved Lucky. The expression on his face said it all during that embrace (now by best cinematic hug!!)and in fact his expressions and actions all throughout the movie said it all! The fact that he didn't vocalize it only makes the film all the more special as does the ambiguous ending,