Lucky Man Movie Review: A convincing Yogi Babu and great dialogue writing elevate this simple comedy

American actor and magician Channing Pollock once said, “The only good luck many great men ever had was being born with the ability and determination to overcome bad luck.” Looks like, Balaji Venugopal, who sets foot into the direction side of cinema with Lucky Man has somehow been inspired by this quote. Starring an efficient Yogi Babu (quite the perfect casting) and Veera in important roles, Lucky Man is an interesting film that leaves you entertained but does not necessarily travel along with you after you leave the theatres.

Cast: Yogi Babu, Raichal Rabecca, Veera
Director: Balaji Venugopal

Lucky Man revolves around Murugan (Yogi Babu), a man labelled unlucky from his childhood, who gets a car as a prize from a 'Lucky' draw. How the car steers his life forward, and how he manoeuvres around the luck factor is the film's story.

Lucky Man starts with a group of young boys denying another young boy the chance to play cricket with them because he has never brought any luck to the team. Balaji sets the premise right from the first scene, and just when we sit back to watch how labels around Murugan go away, Balaji throws in a car to get things into second gear. 

There is a very realistic representation of people's emotional attachment to materialistic things. Here again, the filmmaker takes an interesting detour and makes Lucky Man all about Murugan's luck, his lucky car, and how this creates tension between him and Inspector Sivakumar (Veera). Miscommunication and ego pits Murugan against the straightforward Sivakumar, who is known for his amour propre. 

Lucky Man soon becomes a tale of understanding luck is an abstract construct, and we see what happens to Murugan when that luck is taken away from him. The rest of the film, which has an interesting but stretched-out screenplay, is about Murugan's search for his lucky charm. 

While it is all smooth sailing in the first half, the second half is riddled with speed bumps. There is no real tension about who has taken away Murugan's car. It is all about how he gets it back, and there is no doubt that he will get it by the time the credits roll. Even the way it transpires is archaic and far from innovative. A crisper screenplay in the second half could have helped the audience reach the destination a lot sooner.

For example, the song 'Yedhu Da Inga Sandosham' shows a montage of Murugan's struggles in trying to retrieve his car. The song is positioned at a place where the audience is eager and curious to know what's next. The song, although well composed, only results in a loss of momentum.

The strength of this film lies in its dialogue writing. It is no surprise that the jokes are well-timed, given that Balaji Venugopal comes from a background of comedy and that the film is led by Yogi Babu. But what is surprising is how the punch dialogues and the philosophical ones too are great value additions to the film.

In a scene, where Murugan slaps his wife Devayani (Raichal Rebecca) in haste, the latter says, "Neengalam kandavanta kaata mudiadha kovatha kattinava kitta kaatradhukku per dhaane da kalyanam..." Dialogues like these, which are meant as food for thought on various topics are placed at very random and unexpected interjections in the film, which works wonders.

While the dialogues are on point, a disturbing factor throughout the film is the dubbing. This is an issue that I previously observed in Yogi Babu's Yaanai Mugathan as well. Probably, the actor improvises a lot while dubbing. While many jokes do land, the lip sync being... out of sync is a deterrent to enjoying the laughs. 

It is not easy for a comedian to transition into the protagonist in Tamil cinema. Yogi Babu has at least one release every two weeks. This week itself, he has Karumegangal Kalaiginrana in which he is one among an ensemble, as well as Lucky Man in which he plays the lead. Rest assured, Yogi Babu is lucky enough to be getting a good probability of well-written roles out of the multitude of film releases he has every month. As we leave the theatre though, we won’t feel like we watched the film of the year, but then, we definitely will not feel too unlucky either.