‘102 Not Out’ has a subject which plays between the fine line of being caricaturish and/or preachy. Umesh Shukla, who has given us a gem in ‘OMG! Oh My God’ is back with another play adaptation but with an altogether different subject. Half the battle is won by bringing in legends like Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor in one frame. People rooting for their chemistry will surely come out with the sense of satisfication.
‘102 Not Out’ is a story about a 102 year old super cool father Dattatraya Vakharia (Amitabh Bachchan) and his old-schooled son Babulal Vakharia (Rishi Kapoor). Yes, they’re as unique as their names. One is full of life while the other has somewhere lost the meaning of it while growing to be a 75 year old sincere son. Babulal leads a boring life; getting stucked into artificial things makes him unable to live his life to the fullest.
On the other hand, we have Dattu Dada who wants to outlive the oldest man on the earth. He’s quirky, spreading smiles all over and with his kind of attitude, he gets suggested to stay away from boring people if he wishes to stay alive for more years. Accepting this, he tries to send Babulal to an old age home. Babulal being boring Babulal protests not to leave his house. Dattu Dada comes up with few life-changing challenges for Babulal and the rest of the story revolves around it.
By the end, ‘102 Not Out’ will entertain you as well as moist your eyes; very less films have managed to achieve this feat. From the word go, this gives you the feel of a Rajkumar Hirani School of Cinema. Without saying ‘respect your elders’ even for once during the entire runtime, ‘102 Not Out’ makes the desired impact just with its light hearted moments.
It’s like that teacher who neither bores you with their preachy teachings nor beats you to clear their point. It starts with light hearted moments but ends up being a film that will linger your soul, even days after you leave the cinema hall. This would face some competition from ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ at the box office, but the Indian audience is way too smart to let go a movie such as this.
When we thought Amitabh Bachchan had already reached the peak of his acting career, he has gifted us with Dattatraya Vakharia. This surely will go down as one of his best performances of his career. He has perfected the Gujarati accent with much ease. Rishi Kapoor, yet again, surprises us with a character such as Babulal Vakharia. This role could’ve been a bore if not for Rishi Kapoor’s magical touch. Jimit Trivedi, who is a renowned name in the Gujarati theatre scene, was last seen in Akshay Kumar’s ‘Bhool Bhuliyaa’. He is mindblowing in the film and as natural as he can get. Don’t understand how Bollywood can miss a talent such as him.
The movie starts with a beautiful song “Phir Laut Aayi Zindagi” that shows Mumbai in a quirky cartoonish montage. Arijit Singh’s “Bachche Ki Jaan” goes well with the situation, though its jazzy backdrop has been used very good throughout. “Kulfi” is another heart-wrenching rendition and elevates some already high-on-emotions scenes. Laxman Utekar’s screenplay is colourful and the movie is a treat also to your eyes apart from heart and ears. Vishal Patil’s screenplay is classic and tight following its predecessor in the play.
On the whole, ‘102 Not Out’ is a movie you should watch with your entire family. Because this will not just provide you entertainment but also will make a point that we are nothing without our family.
Rating: 4/5