Right place at the wrong time or wrong place at the right time?

Author: chemingineer from Mumbai, India
27 February 2001

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The film has an unusual format in that it presents three versions of a twenty-minute episode. But unlike Kurosawa's RASHOMON these are not different perspectives of the same incident by different eyes. Instead it offers 'It could have been this way, but for…. or if only…' scenarios. The film thus attempts to define what people loosely refer to as the luck factor. Luck, the film tries to say is being at the right place at the right time or even the wrong place at the wrong time. Or it could be the right place at the wrong time, or is it the wrong place at the right time. It is this clever scripting around the space-time permutation, that makes this film such a delight to watch.

The scenario, in which the young lovers emerge triumphant and richer, makes out a strong case for being proactive and for taking risk. It is also amusing to see how wrong conclusions can be drawn from partial information. But the film offers more than an interesting case study for management students. Cinema buffs would notice that time compression, which is so common in film idiom is not resorted to…. the action is nearly in true time. The quicksilver editing and the pulsating background score embellish Lola's running and make sure that the repetitions do not get jarring. The film is an unalloyed delight to the mind and the senses.