movie review "99"

Movie Review
“99” : The film
After a long gap due to muscle flexing between Multiplex owners and Producers no important movie released from last so many days. Obviously we were also deprived of our weekly movie dose.
“99” is the only movie released this Friday, so the first thing I did was to grab opportunity to see this movie with my family and friend Manohar Thakur. After seeing it I have a feel that Bollywood have a different masala you may easily say a kind of hybrid. Ofcourse there’s nothing unusual about a comedy-adventure-romance-musical. But “99,” with bits of all those elements, mixes them up in a way that has more in common with American indies than with standard Hindi-movie fare.
Set in the backdrop of match fixing in Cricket the story follows a pair of luckless scam artists, Sachin and Zaramud (Kunal Khemu and Cyrus Broacha), who travel to Delhi from Mumbai to collect a debt for their bookie boss acted by Mahesh Manjrekar. In Delhi , there’s a girl for Sachin (Soha Ali Khan) and a gambler who owes everyone money (Boman Irani) and various vivid high- and lowlifes. Due to real life chemistry between Soha and Kunal Khemu their scenes look real. Boman Irani as middle level executive in Money changing company and as a habitual gambler/ baiter steal the show. Vinod Khanna as a gambler and matchfixing kingpin also impresses in his short role.
Directed by the first-time feature filmmakers Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, “99” favours a kind of naturalism, both in its comedy, which is character-based rather than slapstick, and in its look. Cinematographer Rajeev Ravi tried to finds a balance between gritty realism and lush romanticism by using some unusal camera shots and some post production kalakari.
There’s a jaunty, tango-y score and a montage set to a song, but as for that great Bollywood signifier, the song-and-dance sequence, “99” basically just says no. This is unusual but not unheard of, and no doubt what made the gent behind me declare the film “modern.” We glimpse the real thing only briefly: on a film set where a dance routine is being rehearsed, and during the end credits.
The Film ‘99’ is funny, assured and just inventive enough, this is a refreshing sign that commercial Indian cinema has room in its big tent for more than one kind of storytelling.

Directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK; Script : Nidimoru, Krishna DK and Sita Menon; director of photography, Rajeev Ravi; editor by Chiragh Todiwala
Producer duo Anupam Mittal and Aditya Shastri