MUMBAI: Jackpot is the name of the floating casino in Goa as well as the five crore jackpot at stake one big night. The motto of any gambling house is that ‘The House Always Wins’ which is to say a player may sometimes win some money but, eventually at the end of the day the house is the winner. The film also stresses on the principle in which case it is hard to understand why the casino is bent on gifting a five crore jackpot to any gambler? And when one talks of big time jackpot, what is five crore when even a TV show like Kaun Banega Crorepati offers more than that?

Naseeruddin Shah is a residual hippie in Goa who sports some odd colour long hair of the kind Indian sadhus do. He owns the casino Jackpot. Sunny Leone works for his casino and has a five-year stint as the manager of a Las Vegas casino to boast of. She may work with Shah but sleeps with Sachiin Joshi, a drifter who leads an idle Goa life; his major talent is tricks with playing cards. He is a cardsharp. Tired of his idle life, Sachiin gets an itch to make some easy money and since easy money is not really easy to make, he plans a con on Jackpot. From the look of it, everybody is planning one, Sunny as well as Shah. The idea is to outwit the rest.

So far so good but this is all you manage to gather in this film as it goes into its last few minutes and the characters themselves volunteer to tell you what it was all about. One consolation is that the film is only 92 minutes long.

Producer: Raina Sachiin Joshi. Director: Kaizad Gustad. Cast: : Naseeruddin Shah, Sachiin Joshi, Sunny Leone, Makrand Deshpande.

Just about everything in the plot is juvenile. Shah owns a casino worth crores where huge sums exchange hands while the casino is the only assured winner but he can’t raise five crores for a plot of land that is on offer. That he should want to deal with a street-side lad like Sachin at all whatever the bait makes no sense either. The film has been spread over 10 segments with each having its own title and the narration keeps jumping from present to flashback adding to the confusion.

There is nothing much to performances as Shah only makes loud gestures for acting, Leone is not even in the  film for her acting skills. Sachiin tries not to act which is wise. Direction is poor. Musically, one song, Kabhi jo badal barse…is good.

The word Jackpot has no antonym but that is what this film would be if there was one