Cinema Ganj Films’ Love Lottery (A) is a murder mystery. Bharani Verma (Heli Daruwala) is found murdered under mysterious circumstances. Kartik Saxena (Akshay Oberoi) is arrested by the police as the prime suspect. The courtroom battle that follows transforms a simple murder trial into a mystery as buried secrets are uncovered.
Ankur Khatri’s story is ordinary and doesn’t hold the viewers’ interest for long. His screenplay is average in parts but slips downhill in other parts. Once the drama becomes boring, the audience are not even excited about knowing the murderer. Ankur Khatri’s dialogues are routine.
Akshay Oberoi acts well as Kartik Saxena but he can’t carry the burden of a film on his shoulders. Heli Daruwala is alright as Bharani Verma. Kabir Duhan Singh stands his own as police inspector Vikram Bisht. Vijayant Kohi is passable as Vijay. Hemant Pandey lends ordinary support as head constable Mahendra Pant. Indira Krishnan is adequate as Sandhya Verma. Santosh Shukla is ordinary as Neeraj Singh Rana. Vikram Sharma is okay as advocate Prashant Batra. Agni Agyari (as Shabnam), Kumar Saurabh (as Goli), Arshdeep Sandhu (as Amit Khanna), Ashwant Lodhi (as Durgesh Gangwar), Archana Pratap (as judge Arundhati Sinha), Tarique Ahmed (as Rajinder Pillai), Aditya Arya (as tea vendor Tipu), Sanjeev Mishra (as sub-inspector Vikas Pandey), Atul Vishnoi (as Uttam Saxena), Rajni Sharma (as Sheela Saxena) and Rajeev Shukla (as Ram Awadh Dubey) lend average support.
Arvind Pandey’s direction is weak. His narration lacks the thrill and fire of a murder mystery. Music (Varun Mishra and Arvind Pandey) and lyrics (Arvind Pandey) are functional. Song picturisations (by Devendra Chaturvedi ‘David’) are barely passable. Sumeet Bellary’s background music is dull. Navin V. Mishra’s camerawork is below the mark. Kinder W. Singh’s action and stunt scenes are not very thrilling. Surendra Prajapati’s production designing is okay. Prakash Jha’s editing is fair.
On the whole, Love Lottery is a dull fare.
Released on 25-9-’26 at Cinepolis Andheri (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru August Entertainment. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.