First and the foremost - the movie '99' comes under the category of movies where the main objective of the director is to make all the characters of the movie fight for one noble cause - MONEY ! The director has chosen the subject of match-fixing as the central plot of the movie '99' . If you are a cricket buff you might know that the first case of match-fixing was registered at Nagpur in the India - South Africa series held in 1999 .(Oh God ! Before watching the movie I was wondering why the title is '99')
Lets dissect ! The director has maintained a perfect balance between the good and bad aspects of the film, literally. If the supporting cast has done well then the lead pair has messed up, where the script is good there the editing tries to spoil it, the movie takes off fine but crash lands towards the end.
The story begins with a chase sequence where our hero Sachin [Kunal Khemu] and his friend Zaraa-Mud [Cyrus Broacha] (the name doesnt seem to be funny as it has no resemblance with either the character or Cyrus) are followed by cops, delivered very hilariously by the two actors. To complement it, there is a fantastic background score for the opening titles giving us the feel that a Hollywood movie has started.
Sachin and Zaraa-Mud own a small warehouse where they illegally clone SIM cards of the wealthy people and sell them to the needy. But they fall prey to a police trap, and on a run to save their life they steal a car owned by AGM(Mahesh Manjrekar). Unfortunately the stylish car is transformed into scrap as the duo dash it while driving the car recklessly to escape from the cops. AGM, a gangster, who heads a cricket betting organisation threatens the duo to kill them if they would not compensate him for the damages they caused. This issue is settled by a contract which says that the duo will go to Delhi and recover money from Rahul (Boman Irani) which he owes to AGM from the cricket bet loss.
The duo stay at five star hotel in Delhi(ofcource on AGM's expense) where Sachin meets Pooja(Soha Ali Khan) who is the lobby manager of the hotel. Love starts to blossom between the two from the moment they see each other. Lets quickly get back to Rahul (Boman Irani) - he has a pivotal role to play. Rahul works at an currency exchange department. He has a gorgeous wife Janavi[Simone Singh] who is fed up his gambling habit, as he has lost a lot of money and goons are behind him to recover the money.
Then comes the veteran actor - the star - Vinod Khanna - he plays a millionaire, king of match fixing in India. JC, his character, is larger than life which is portrayed superbly by the actor.With the motive of making money Rahul plans to play the bet by using his departments money, but in the meanwhile the duo come and snatch the money from him as asked by their boss Mr AGM. Unfortunately while returning to Mumbai this money gets stolen which adds up to the tension amongst Rahul, Sachin and Zaraa-Mud. So the trio decide to make another plan to save their life from AGM.
A Bhojpuri actor, who stays in Delhi, is also liable to return money to AGM, so the trio plan to recover this money from him without the knowledge of AGM and bet it on India-South Africa match. To add up to the misery AGM somehow comes to know that the duo has recovered money from the Bhojpuri actor, so lands up in Delhi, turning the situation completely into a chaos. As JC is the main man for match fixing in India, Sachin and Zaraa-Mud use there skills of sim card cloning, to clone JC's sim so as to hear his conversation with the bookies.
Are they able to return the money to AGM ? What happens to the match and its fixers ? To know the answers you have to watch the movie.
Performances - Mahesh Manjrekar has done it again, he is now used to play a Bhai with ease and perfection. He has done justice to his character - a weird one, a bit comic, a little uneducated, dangerous at times but completely impressive throughout the movie.
Vinod Khanna looks stunningly handsome (remember he is in his late sixties), his power paked performance as a business tycoon may not be one of his bests, but surely complements the job of his subordinates in this film. He is definitely the most handsome man in Bollywood who can undoubtly make women go crazy about him.
But the man of the match is none other than Boman Irani who delivers one of his best performance(equivalent to Khosla Ka Ghosla) till date. He has portrayed the character of a man in a jinx surrounded by chaos with sheer power. His body language, dialogue delivery, facial expressions everything is perfectly in place making his character of Rahul, the most believable of all, and the one to which everyone of us can relate to. Hats-off to Boman - one the finest actors we have.
The story begins with a chase sequence where our hero Sachin [Kunal Khemu] and his friend Zaraa-Mud [Cyrus Broacha] (the name doesnt seem to be funny as it has no resemblance with either the character or Cyrus) are followed by cops, delivered very hilariously by the two actors. To complement it, there is a fantastic background score for the opening titles giving us the feel that a Hollywood movie has started.
Sachin and Zaraa-Mud own a small warehouse where they illegally clone SIM cards of the wealthy people and sell them to the needy. But they fall prey to a police trap, and on a run to save their life they steal a car owned by AGM(Mahesh Manjrekar). Unfortunately the stylish car is transformed into scrap as the duo dash it while driving the car recklessly to escape from the cops. AGM, a gangster, who heads a cricket betting organisation threatens the duo to kill them if they would not compensate him for the damages they caused. This issue is settled by a contract which says that the duo will go to Delhi and recover money from Rahul (Boman Irani) which he owes to AGM from the cricket bet loss.
The duo stay at five star hotel in Delhi(ofcource on AGM's expense) where Sachin meets Pooja(Soha Ali Khan) who is the lobby manager of the hotel. Love starts to blossom between the two from the moment they see each other. Lets quickly get back to Rahul (Boman Irani) - he has a pivotal role to play. Rahul works at an currency exchange department. He has a gorgeous wife Janavi[Simone Singh] who is fed up his gambling habit, as he has lost a lot of money and goons are behind him to recover the money.
Then comes the veteran actor - the star - Vinod Khanna - he plays a millionaire, king of match fixing in India. JC, his character, is larger than life which is portrayed superbly by the actor.With the motive of making money Rahul plans to play the bet by using his departments money, but in the meanwhile the duo come and snatch the money from him as asked by their boss Mr AGM. Unfortunately while returning to Mumbai this money gets stolen which adds up to the tension amongst Rahul, Sachin and Zaraa-Mud. So the trio decide to make another plan to save their life from AGM.
A Bhojpuri actor, who stays in Delhi, is also liable to return money to AGM, so the trio plan to recover this money from him without the knowledge of AGM and bet it on India-South Africa match. To add up to the misery AGM somehow comes to know that the duo has recovered money from the Bhojpuri actor, so lands up in Delhi, turning the situation completely into a chaos. As JC is the main man for match fixing in India, Sachin and Zaraa-Mud use there skills of sim card cloning, to clone JC's sim so as to hear his conversation with the bookies.
Are they able to return the money to AGM ? What happens to the match and its fixers ? To know the answers you have to watch the movie.
Performances - Mahesh Manjrekar has done it again, he is now used to play a Bhai with ease and perfection. He has done justice to his character - a weird one, a bit comic, a little uneducated, dangerous at times but completely impressive throughout the movie.
Vinod Khanna looks stunningly handsome (remember he is in his late sixties), his power paked performance as a business tycoon may not be one of his bests, but surely complements the job of his subordinates in this film. He is definitely the most handsome man in Bollywood who can undoubtly make women go crazy about him.
But the man of the match is none other than Boman Irani who delivers one of his best performance(equivalent to Khosla Ka Ghosla) till date. He has portrayed the character of a man in a jinx surrounded by chaos with sheer power. His body language, dialogue delivery, facial expressions everything is perfectly in place making his character of Rahul, the most believable of all, and the one to which everyone of us can relate to. Hats-off to Boman - one the finest actors we have.
Surprise ! Surprise ! Kunal Khemu and Soha Ali Khan are a major let down as they dont impress much coz the chemistry which should be there(as they are a couple off-screen too) is missing.This movie '99' definitely wont be of any advantage for both the actors with respect to their careers.
Cyrus Brocha looks abnormally fat as if he has tried to compensate Adnan Sami with the weight loss. He has done a good job in the role of an idiotic friend but at some parts his acting misses the natural touch, his ascent is the same he used to host the MTV shows.
But you would definitely not forget KUBER - a top notch performance by Amit Mistry, he plays a bookie/recovery agent for AGM, his comic timing is superb, and leaves a mark throughout the movie.
There are in all three songs which are really very good, specially the Baa-adab Baa-mulaayza song which is very melodious. The music is perfectly complemented with a spectacular background score which becomes the heart of the movie '99'.
On the whole the movie would not be a blockbuster, not even a HIT as it seems to be half-hearted effort of the director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. to entertain the audiences which now-a-days accept only those movies which have exceptional elements. So do not expect much while watching this movie but you can enjoy the talent of the supporting cast of '99'.
Go for it only if you have nothing else to do .
Cyrus Brocha looks abnormally fat as if he has tried to compensate Adnan Sami with the weight loss. He has done a good job in the role of an idiotic friend but at some parts his acting misses the natural touch, his ascent is the same he used to host the MTV shows.
But you would definitely not forget KUBER - a top notch performance by Amit Mistry, he plays a bookie/recovery agent for AGM, his comic timing is superb, and leaves a mark throughout the movie.
There are in all three songs which are really very good, specially the Baa-adab Baa-mulaayza song which is very melodious. The music is perfectly complemented with a spectacular background score which becomes the heart of the movie '99'.
On the whole the movie would not be a blockbuster, not even a HIT as it seems to be half-hearted effort of the director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. to entertain the audiences which now-a-days accept only those movies which have exceptional elements. So do not expect much while watching this movie but you can enjoy the talent of the supporting cast of '99'.
Go for it only if you have nothing else to do .
RATING : * *
Reviewed by Ashish Gharde This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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