“Jack” As Hero
The lead actor here, let’s call him Jack, does not know jack about acting. We will not name him because this whole idea of untalented rich kids pumping in money to become actors should not be encouraged. We will not let that money win.
“Pot” as Villain
Naseeruddin Shah plays a character who seems high on pot and talks throughout like he’s fully stoned. Naseer makes Amitabh Bachchan from Boom look like a better dressed actor. What is it with Gustad taking the best of our actors and making caricatures out of them, film after film? Jackpot will go down in history books as the worst film Naseer has ever been in.
“Jackpot” as Pay Cheque
Pornstar Sunny Leone has very little to do, except maybe tell Bharath every now and then to look her in the eye and not where the young actor spends most of his screen time looking. A guy in the theatre mocked his friend who dragged him to the film during the interval: “ Saale , Sunny Leone dekhni thi tujhe ?” (“Serves you right for wanting to see Sunny Leone”)
“ Namma ” Bharath
We can only hope Bharath, making his debut in Hindi, got paid well for the role. If he did, he would be the real winner of this film.
The “Director” as the real con artist
The real con Kaizad pulls off is not the convoluted plot that is inspired from half a dozen con films but how he managed to package tripe like this as a film and got someone to fund a holiday for him and friends in Goa!
Not only does Jackpot pretend to be a Hindi film (it’s largely in English), it also has terrible lines and the worst performances ever. It is a clueless film clearly made without the presence of a director.
To subvert a quote from a really brilliant con film to describe what Gustad did: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he did exist... on set.
Genre: Con
Director: Kaizad Gustad
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Sunny Leone, Bharath, Makarand Deshpande
Storyline: A bunch of people try to con a crooked casino owner
Bottomline: Forget the film, Goa is just so beautiful
