‘102 not out’ is a nice movie. It is a decently watchable film. Its old style what we call Halki-fhulki all family entertainer. Do not expect the brilliance of Hrishikesh Mukherjee film and you will be fine.
It is a film where the roles are reversed than what you may expect in real life. 102 not out Dattatraya Vakharia (Amitabh Bachchan) the father far livelier than his 75-year son Babulal Vakharia ( Rishi Kapoor).
Now Dattatreya wants his colourless son with too templated life to have some fun and energy. And for that, he creates a story and places few conditions before son Babulnath. In case the conditions are not fulfilled, than Dattatreya, 102 Not out is ready to get into records books as the first father to send his son to an old age nursing home.
The joke is stretched to the limit, any more and the movie would have fallen flat.
102 Not Out is like a two mono act play involving great actors trying to impress each other.
Umesh Shukla’s 102 Not Out is the screen adaptation of Gujarati play by Saumya Joshi. Umesh attempts to retain the flavour by keeping the father-son duo Gujarati. It is a universal situation. The duo could have been from any region, and the ploy would have been equally shallow. But, here at times, the Gujarati father sounds more like the Bengali father of Piku. AYou would expect the master of acting and voice rendition to have kept it in mind.
102 NotOut is unidimensionally flat. At few places, both actors tend to be loud and over the top. Thankfully such frames are few.
It is not Amitabh or Rishi’s film, it is their film, and at least in this count the director and script do justice to the two actors.
And while we are at it, we must not forget to compliment a very talented Jimit Trivedi, who is help at a chemist shop but remains mostly with the father-son duo. He never allows the two excellent actors to overshadow his character and in one scene where he is angry at Amitabh, he comes alive with an outstanding performance that touches your heart. Unfortunately, we can’t say that for the complete movie.
Blog/29/Movie 04/2018
