Jackpot

STORY: Three con artists have their eyes set on some fast money. However, each of them are secretly trying to con the other as well. Who will outwit whom and get away with the loot? REVIEW: Goa forms the backdrop for this who-getsthe- moolah caper. Francis (Joshi) packs in the muscle and has a can of beer always close at hand. He is also street-smart enough to impress Maya (Leone), the oomphy voice of reason in the movie.

Boss Man (Naseeruddin) is a veteran raver whose clothes are as colourful as his principles and punchlines. Slow in speech but quick to draw a six-shooter, he owns the Jackpot casino. Boss, Francis and Maya hatch a plan to steal crores of cash. And while the deed itself is executed decently enough, the subsequent sub-plots and implications of intrigue amongst the schemers is laid on with the predictability and subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Completely in character, Boss looks and sounds like a parody of a villain. While it’s clearly understood that he is the owner of a floating casino, his lines flog every possible gambling pun to death. After a point, you can almost predict what the next one-liner will be.

Francis and his other muscle-bound cronies often get into squabbles whenever some suspicion of duplicity arises amongst them. And those expecting anything even close to a Sunny Leone steam-fest will be disappointed. In fact, she raps the knuckles of the local lads, scolding them if they dare lay their gaze on her bursting-at-the-buttons bosom. “My eyes are up here, not down there!” she reminds one local lad. She is also given lines like “Sarkar aur underworld mein kya farak hai?” Similarly, Francis, who later in the movie reminds her that “Hum log artist hai – con artist!” and Boss, who reasons out that in his line of work, “Risky is like whisky”. Makarand Deshpande’s kooky cop character is genuinely funny, but corny lines aside, one of Jackpot’s few redeeming factors here is that it moves along quickly.

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