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Cast: Boman Irani, Kunal Khemu, Cyrus Brocha, Mahesh Manjrekar
99 is set in the year 1999 when communication was going satellite swift in India with both cell phone and internet gaining popularity. Incidentally the film is about connections and cross-connections. Small time techno-crooks Sachin (Kunal Khemu) and Zaramud (Cyrus Brocha) manipulate mobile SIM cards until they knock off the sparkling white Mercedes belonging to bad bookie AGM (Mahesh Manjrekar). They end up serving AGM as his recovery agents and head Delhi to retrieve money from Rahul (Boman Irani). Rahul is a bourgeois businessman but a compulsive gambler who has a theory on luck, which he tries to push with every bet. The stakes are anything but average. Stuck at 99 in life – just one short of that elusive 'century', Sachin, Zaramud and Rahul come together to put more money on stake and play the biggest bet of their life on a cricket match. There is a plan to reduce the risk though not foolproof. But the problem is they don’t have money to wager; rather they owe to others. So will they be stumped before century or play illustrious innings? 99 falls in the same genre of Guy Ritchie’s cult crime-comedy caper Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with a lot of money manipulation and currency rotation. Thankfully the treatment is not slapstick like its earlier Indian edition Phir Hera Pheri , with sensible writing, credible characters and smart direction. The screenplay co-written by director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK with Sita Menon is well-etched with constant twists and turns through its erratic flow. The writers very smoothly fuse in the real life infamous Hansie Cronje match-fixing episode of 2000 with a fictional narrative making the film appear as a factual event. The pacing is neither too fast that the betting ballgame becomes intangible nor too slow to lose its audience. The first half is a little leisure but complements for the requisite thriller detailing in the second. Especially noteworthy is the culmination which has multiple climactic twists (in the vein of Abhay Deol’s less-known film 1:40 Ki Last Local ) making for a perfect thrill ride. Thankfully, before the romance track with Soha Ali Khan could have gone tangent to the plot, the girl is promptly absorbed in the game-plan. Rajeev Ravi’s cinematography is decent with several scenes panning facial close-ups capturing Boman’s intuitive expressions or giving Vinod Khanna a majestic ‘Mallya’ feel. The background score is peppy though derives a lot from the Pulp Fiction theme track. The recreation of the Y2K era is smartly done with hoardings of Bill Clinton’s India visit in Delhi and movie posters of that period in Mumbai. However there is a trivial goof with the Munnabhai MBBS symbolism that released much later. Boman Irani scores a perfect hundred in 99 . Addicted to gambling and almost abandoned by his wife, he enacts a poised player in this game. Mahesh Manjrekar comes a close second with his mean act. Amit Mistry as the Delhi recovery agent with his hulk-henchman Dimple gets the best comic scenes and is hilarious. Kunal Khemu is decent though Soha gets sidelined. The oversized Cyrus Brocha doesn’t command too much of screen presence but is damn funny with some good one-liners and distinct mannerisms. Vinod Khanna has a short role and befits the billionaire he plays. 99 makes way for 100% entertainment.
