Viiking Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.’s Jackpot (A) is a suspense thriller. It is a story about friendship, greed, cheating, mistrust and deceit. Boss (Naseeruddin Shah) runs a big casino, in a boat in Goa. He hatches a plot with Francis (Sachin Joshi), Maya (Sunny Leone), Anthony (Bharath Niwas) and Kirti (Elvis Mascarenhas) to win the Rs. 5 crore jackpot in his casino by unfair means and have the prize money robbed by an insider so that insurance can be claimed.
Anthony wins the jackpot and Francis flees with the briefcase containing the cash even as the winner has just been given the prize money. To Francis’ horror, the briefcase is empty when he opens it. The blame game now begins. While Boss accuses Francis of pocketing the Rs. 5 crore, Francis is convinced that Boss had pulled a fast one on him.
Boss is baying for Francis’ blood. Maya and Anthony don’t know who is fooling whom, as the prize money was to be shared between Boss, Francis, Maya and Anthony. Police constable Tukaram (Makarand Deshpande) is investigating the crime.
Francis also tries to broker a deal for a very huge plot of land to be purchased by Boss and convinces the latter to pay a bribe of Rs. 5 crore to the chief minister in lieu of permission to buy the plot of land. Boss pays the bribe money to the chief minister, but it turns out that the recipient was a look-alike of the chief minister. What happens to the bribe money?
Boss hides a camera in Francis’ house and starts tapping his telephone conversations too. Soon, Anthony and Kirti are found dead in quick succession and under mysterious circumstances. Who killed them and why?
Finally, Boss drills a hole in the boat casino to get Francis to confess where the money is. Does Francis know where the money is? Does he tell Boss about it? Or is Boss the real culprit? Or is Maya the criminal?
Kaizad Gustad has penned a very confusing story and screenplay. The film keeps going into flashbacks adding to the confusion of the audience. Only the alert and very intelligent audience will understand the drama as it unfolds, that too, if they care to. The rest, of course, will give up quite early on as they would feel disconnected from the proceedings. Although the film is a suspense thriller, it never really manages to raise the excitement quotient to an appreciable level. Boss drilling a hole in the boat so that it begins to sink seems to be a ridiculous ploy to scare the daylights out of Francis if only because Boss himself is on the same boat! All in all, Kaizad Gustad seems to have not used common sense while scripting, or if he has used it, he is unable to explain matters to the audience. Resultantly, the entire drama looks far-fetched, stage-managed or silly, depending upon the way the viewer looks at it. Dialogues, written by Amol Parashar and Kaizad Gustad, lack the fire.
Naseeruddin Shah gives his all to the character of Boss but it is a pity to see such a talented actor do such an insane role. Sachin Joshi is ordinary and gets limited scope to showcase anything. Sunny Leone is alright in a role which hardly offers her scope to act. She entices with her body beautiful. Bharath Niwas is okay as Anthony. Makarand Deshpande makes his presence felt. Elvis Mascarenhas passes muster as Kirti. Satish Gawas (as chief minister), George Rodrigues (as Francis’ aged uncle), Bosco Menezes (as the insurance agent) and the others barely pass muster.
Kaizad Gustad’s direction is as weak as his script. He is unable to thrill the audience with his lacklustre narration. Musically, ‘Kabhi jo baadal barse’, composed by Sharib-Toshi, is a lovely song. The other songs (music by Mika Singh, Remo Fernandes, Sridevi Kasvan, Janaka Autogoda, Juno Reactor and Itek Bhutani) are average. Lyrics ( Turaz, Azeem Shirazi, Raj Hans, Abhijeet Deshpande, Remo Fernandes, Kaizad Gustad, Sridevi Kasvan, Irfan Siddique and Ramaya Iyer) are okay. Song picturisations (Bosco-Caesar) are average. Background music, by John Stewart, is effective. Artur Zurawski’s cinematography is excellent. Mehmood Khan’s action and stunt scenes are exciting. The chase sequence in the first half, in particular, is lovely. Narendra Rahurikar’s sets are rich and ostentatious. Yasser Abbas’ editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Jackpot fails to thrill or send a chill down the audience’s spine. It will, therefore, not appeal to the audience and will bomb at the box-office.
Released on 13-12-’13 at Regal (daily 3 shows), Eros (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: good. Opening: very poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.