100% fun

This morning I caught the Bollywood flick 99 and I must say that it's a must-watch entertainer. After a long time I watched a Hindi comedy that actually has a plot. It's not like one of those so-called Hindi comedies where 10 minutes into the film you wonder why the heck you coughed up the moolah to buy that ticket.

The movie starts off with 2 bumbling small-time technology-savvy thieves (Zaramood played by Cyrus Brocha and Sachin played by Kunal Khemu) who make money by peddling illegal SIM cards. Unfortunately they steal a getaway car (which is ultimately wrecked) from one of Mumbai's shady bookies called AGM (played by Mahesh Manjrekar). They now have to work for him to pay him back for stealing and wrecking his favourite car. They are sent to Delhi to retrieve some money that a compulsive gambler (played by Boman Irani) owes AGM. This takes them to Delhi where they run into Pooja (played by Soha Ali Khan) and Sachin promptly falls for her. The rest of the story is how they manage to get AGM's money back and how Boman's character tries to make arrangements for money that he owes several characters besides AGM while at the same time balancing a wife (played by the lovely Simone Singh) who is super mad at him and his gambling tendencies.

This movie sees the return of several actors who I have not seen in a while. Saw Sudesh Berry (I had a giant crush on him when Kashish was on TV) in a blink and you'll miss it role but I guess I didn't blink :). Vinod Khanna makes a guest appearance in the movie as well. And watching Cyrus was just a treat. While this is not a rip-roaring comedy, it has its moments. I was entertained throughout and was quite engrossed in all the situations the main protagonists find themselves in. Directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK got a lot of things right with this movie - there are no unnecessary songs in the movie, the script is always moving the movie ahead - not too many stalling moments, the dialogues are witty for the most part with apt use of the Mumbaiyya slang in true tapori fashion and the modest budget appears to be well-spent and all the characters do justice to their roles. I am hopeful to see what Kunal Khemu and Soha Ali Khan do next in their careers - I get that they will probably have to do some run-of-the-mill roles but I hope they continue to explore these "zara-hatke" roles as well.

As far as Bollywood capers go, this was a good entertainer (I mean - one of the smaller fish in the goon sea has a 6 ft-tall sidekick named Dimple - ha ha) that I would recommend - 2.5 stars.