Aug 08, 2009 12:51 PM
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Small time techno-crooksSachin(Kunal Khemu) and Zaramud(Cyrus Brocha) manipulate mobile SIM cardsuntil they knock off the sparkling white Mercedes belonging to bad bookie AGM(Mahesh Manjrekar). They end up serving AGM as his recovery agents and headDelhi to retrieve money from Rahul(Boman Irani). Rahul is a bourgeoisbusinessman but a compulsive gambler who has a theory on luck, which he tries topush 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 cometogether to put more money on stake and play the biggest bet of their life on acricket match. There is a plan to reduce the risk though not foolproof. But theproblem is they don’t have money to wager; rather they owe to others. Sowill they be stumped before century or play illustriousinnings?
99 falls in the same genre of Guy Ritchie’s cult crime-comedy caper Lock Stock and TwoSmoking Barrels with a lot of moneymanipulation and currency rotation. Thankfully the treatment is not slapsticklike its earlier Indian edition Phir HeraPheri, with sensible writing, crediblecharacters and smart direction. The screenplay co-written by director duo RajNidimoru and Krishna DK with Sita Menon is well-etched with constant twists andturns through its erratic flow. The writers very smoothly fuse in the real lifeinfamous Hansie Cronje match-fixing episode of 2000 with a fictional narrativemaking the film appear as a factual event.
The pacing is neither too fastthat the betting ballgame becomes intangible nor too slow to lose its audience.The first half is a little leisure but complements for the requisite thrillerdetailing in the second. Especially noteworthy is the culmination which hasmultiple climactic twists(in the vein of Abhay Deol’s less-known film 1:40 Ki LastLocal) making for a perfect thrill ride.Thankfully, before the romance track with Soha Ali Khan could have gone tangentto the plot, the girl is promptly absorbed in the game-plan.
Rajeev Ravi’s cinematographyis decent with several scenes panning facial close-ups capturing Boman’sintuitive expressions or giving Vinod Khanna a majestic ‘Mallya’feel. The background score is peppy though derives a lot from the PulpFiction theme track. The recreation of theY2K era is smartly done with hoardings of Bill Clinton’s India visit inDelhi and movie posters of that period in Mumbai. However there is a trivialgoof with the MunnabhaiMBBS symbolism that released much later.
