Critics’ Verdict: Lucknow Central, the Cast Makes the Film Work

The critics’ verdict on Lucknow Central is out.

Movie: Lucknow Central
Director: Ranjit Tiwari
Producer: Nikhil Advani
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Diana Penty, Gippy Grewal, Deepak Dobriyal, Ronit Roy, Inaamulhaq, and Rajesh Sharma

Excerpts from reviews of Lucknow Central.

One, two, three, check check, mike testing. Cut to Moradabad initially, to be in the company of one Kishen Mohan Girhotra, a songster who beams that he has a dream. Scream, blare, that turns out to be nightmare. Hence and ducks, right off you want to know why Farhan Akhtar, the otherwise formidably gifted director-actor, in that order, has been transferred  to Lucknow Central (Jail), stewarded by first-timer Ranjit Tiwari. This spin on musicians emerging from within prison walls is culled from facts, a tribute to the Healing Hearts Band from the city of erstwhile nabobs who’d sup on delectable kabobs. Sincere apologies, but the ensuing cuisine of muzak, prison break plans and much ado-dah about violent rivarly between the cellmates is enough to set off a tummy rumble. Grumble.

Khalid Mohamed, SpotBoyE

Lucknow Central is an engaging thriller, which makes a brave attempt to penetrate the politics of prison life without relinquishing the right to engage us in a solid storytelling spree. The cat-and-mouse game is played out between a sadistic jailer (Ronit Roy, in top form) and a non-guilty prisoner (Farhan Akhtar) who is bent on getting his liberty at any cost. The thoughtfully written script (by Ranjit Tiwari, Aseem Arora) delves into the dynamics of freedom and comes up with a super-chic musical with wings that often allow vivid characters to fly higher than prison dramas generally do in India.

Gulf News

Like TV show Prison Break, Lucknow Central begins on an impressive note. We meet Kishan Girhotra (Farhan Akhtar), a Moradabad guy, who wants to form his own band. This is a distant vision, but he believes small towns can’t crush a big dream. Switching accents between urban, semi-urban and rural, Farhan Akhtar somehow finds himself in the jail on the charge of murdering an IAS officer. He manages to convince a few inmates, a la Prison Break, to join his band, but the real idea behind the move is much more dangerous and can lead to total devastation. This band, a group of five criminals, has its reasons to run away from the jail, but one person is standing between them and the world outside: Jailor Shrivastava (Ronit Roy).By now, Lucknow Central begins to lose its sheen like, what else, Prison Break.Is it also similar to Qaidi Band? Yes

Rohit Vats, Hindustan Times

Orson Welles famously said, ‘Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck’. The fate of a young man who is wrongfully implicated in a murder case hinges on this sweeping quotation. It might sound a bit naïve for a prison drama, but then events in director Ranjit Tiwari’s Lucknow Central lean more towards sentimentality than sagacity. Kishen Mohan Girhotra (Farhan Akhtar) is a small town man with big dreams of becoming a professional singer. Overnight, he becomes the victim of a corrupt and corruptible system when he is wrongfully implicated for a murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. This sudden jail-time derails his desire to become a recording artist and perform in front of large audiences of appreciative fans. Tiwari’s handling of the jail scenes are commendable even if the climax is a little contrived. And while this jailhouse rock-on see-saws between musical drama and message movie, its origins in a true story (about a real life prison band called Healing Hearts) and it’s notation on the merits of reformation give it soul.

Udita Jhunjhunwala, Firstpost

The importance of a solid supporting cast cannot be overstated. Ranjit Tiwari’s Lucknow Central a film about prisoners who form a band – a surprising popular theme of the season – can be called engaging only because it is populated by very good character actors. This is not a particularly well-crafted film, but actors like Veerendra Saxena, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Rajesh Sharma and the Punjabi popstar Gippy Grewal are so credible and distinctive that, for a while, they make the film aspire to a better class of criminal cinema.

Raja Sen, NDTV

Time spent in prison assumes an elastic and unreliable quality, and it is unfortunate that Tiwari lets his movie to be infected too. There is far too much going on here for 147 minutes, with an overwritten build-up and an overblown climax, which undermines not just the jailer’s authority but narrative logic too. The eardrum-shattering background music only heavily underlines what is already evident, and we await the day when movie scores elevate a scene, rather than rub it in our faces.The scenes that linger are the one involving the interactions between the five band mates, especially the moment when four of them get out on parole and realise that life outside prison is hardly any better. Inside jail, there is camaraderie, music, and the faint hope of recognition and respect.

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