'99' by Ashim

Rating ***1/2



It has been about 5-6 Fridays! I was missing my nachos and cheese salsa. I was missing the aroma of popcorn, the hustle bustle of a movie hall and that enclosure of the air-conditioned dark auditorium! 99 released this Friday and being an avid movie buff, I was dying to hit the theatres and have a blast for 2 and half hours. Guess what? It was certainly worth my wait!!

‘99’ takes you down the memory lane to the Y2K era (around 1999). Mobile phones were a new concept and gaining popularity in India along with the internet cafes. It was the time around which the notorious bookies were betting in full throttle. Hansie Cronje, Nicky Boje, Herschelle Gibbs and our very own Mohd. Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja were in news for match fixing.

With good performers and an interesting storyline on screen, you expect nothing but a qualitative product and ‘99’ is definitely one! The directors of 99 know how to package an interesting story with top-notch performances and entertaining moments with aplomb.

For me the best feature of the film is the look and the treatment of the film. It looks chic and stylish right from the innovative casting to the last half an hour which has several interesting twists. The journey from scene A to Z is well structured. The writing is intelligent with ordinary, real life characters and direction is gripping. The plot is not slapstick! It rather has a light hearted, spicy and tongue-in-cheek kind of mood. It ensures you feel good moving out of the theatre. Apart from these pluses, a major highlight has to be the performances in the film.

Boman Irani plays an interesting character of a compulsive gambler who has a lot of fundas on luck and stakes almost everything he has if he believes it’s going to be his day. He stands out and was 100 on 100 for me in 99. Amit Mistry as Delhi recovery agent with his giant chamcha ‘Dimple’ were simply side-splitting together. Other commendable performances were that of Mahesh Manjrekar as the bookie and Vinod Khanna as the billionaire gambler.

Kunal Khemu is a really good actor and gets better and more confident with every movie. The role was perfectly suited for him and he does justice to it at the same time. Cyrus Broacha as his friend/partner as expected, was damn funny with very witty dialogues though he would want to work upon his acting skills and Hindi pronunciation. Soha too is evolving into a fine actress but gets sidelined in this plot. Gorgeous Simone Singh does look beautiful but got less scope to perform.
Romance and songs do not have a lot of scope in the story and director thankfully is intelligent enough to understand that! The background score is peppy though inspired somewhat from Pulp Fiction sound track. The dialogues are well penned too.

Treat this film as an entertainer and sit through it without taxing your brains. You'd enjoy the film! On the whole, ‘99’ works in two ways. It'll appeal to those who enjoy light entertainers and also those who like some thrill in the story line. With no opposition and being the only biggish release after a long break, the film should have a blissful ride at the ticket window as well. You should grab your ticket today!