99 - Review

After a long wait, a Hindi movie finally hit the multiplexes. Was it worth the wait ??
Lets find out.....

99 deals with the story of two small time crooks Sachin (Kunal Khemu) & Zaramud (Cyrus Broacha), who want to make it big in life. An unlucky tryst with a lunatic bookie AGM (Mahesh Manjrekar) causes them to change their career path & turn to a mad world of bookies, gamblers & cops.
In search of money collection for AGM, the story then takes them to Delhi where they encounter various characters such as a debt burdened gambler Rahul (Boman Irani), a local bookie Kuber (Amit Mistry), a high-roller businessman JC (Vinod Khanna), an over the top Bhojpuri actor & a hotel manager Pooja (Soha Ali Khan).
Before they know it, they get embroiled in a mess & hence hatch a genius plan to get out of it, which of course, doesn't go as planned. Then follows a mad ride which involves action, thrills, stupidity & a whole lot of humour.

While the movie starts off with a bang, the narrative falls a little weak in the first half. After the first 20 minutes, the movie slows down drastically, taking away from the first half experience. But the second half is where the movie really picks up. While the story might be very predictable, there is still a great amount of fun watching it unfold.

The characters are very well drawn out & some of them remain etched in your mind well after the movie.
While the cinematography is good, the dialogues are excellent, actually making for a good laugh almost through the whole film.

But the true soul of the film is clearly its performances;
While Kunal Khemu does a good job in the anchor role & goofy Cryus Broacha is definitely funny in his less-dialogues more expressions kind of a role, it is the knock-out performances by Mahesh Manjrekar & Amit Mistry that take the cake. Manjrekar plays his role with ease while Amit Mistry delivers a stellar & memorable performance for a new-comer.
Boman Irani is excellent as well, but gets over-shadowed as his charecter is quite subtle. Vinod Khanna fits the bill perfectly. He looks the part & plays his small role with style.

Director duo Krishna D.K & Raj Nidimoru make a great effort & almost deliver a complete experience.
The only issue with the film, being its timing. If the first half would be trimmed a bit & the film kept to 2 hours, you would have had a crisp story & a fine product. That being, the film still makes you laugh & love its comical characters.

So if you're in the mood to watch something fun, with an interesting story, hilarious dialogues & some knockout performances, 99 is the film for you. Don't go in with expectations & it will leave you entertained.
Definitely worth your buck.

Critical: 3,5/5
Commercial: 2.5/5