102 Not Out Review: Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor teach you how to live while you’re alive

It has become the sad reality of our lives that we’ve forgotten to live even while we’re breathing. Carrying this overtone, Umesh Shukla’s 102 Not Out presents a slice-of-life drama. It’s not the first time that a movie based on the essence of life has been made. Earlier, films like Wake Up Sid, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Chahta Hai and many others have forayed into the same genre. However, it was the first time that two stalwarts of Indian cinema have united after decades to present a film which is far placed from commercial elements.

102 Not Out Plot

The trailer was sufficed to give you an insight of what this Amitabh Bachchan-starrer had in store for you. It’s a heart-warming love story between a dad and son duo that has learned to find solace in each other’s company. Dattatraya Vakharia (Amitabh Bachchan) is a centurion who still embodies the spirit to live the life to the fullest. On the other hand, his 75-year-old son, Babu Lal Vakharia (Rishi Kapoor) has happily accepted his old age. He’s scared of life as much as he dreads death. Rishi Kapoor’s character carries some undertones of Amitabh Bachchan’s character in Shoojit Sircar’s Piku. He checks his blood pressure on a daily basis to maintain the healthy numbers 80/120.

Dattatraya, on the other hand, is hardly bothered about his age. He’s the follower of a popular adage, ‘age is just a number’. He aspires to break the record of the longest living man on the Earth, a 118-year-old Chinese man. In order to achieve his goal of a longer life, he tries to revamp his lacklustre son Babulal. In this course of transformation, one gets to realise how they’re lacking to live the life they’ve been bestowed with.

Dattatraya’s plan of action is aided by a neighbourhood shop worked Dhiru, who is a 20-something naive man who came all way from Gujarat to find livelihood in Mumbai. Though he works at a medical store, but his comfort resides in Shanti Niwas, Dattatraya’s heritage villa. He is unknowingly attached to the Vakharia family and plays an integral part in Babulal’s makeover.

102 Not Out Review

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a Bollywood film which is carrying such emotional nuances without overburdening the story. This is one advantage of watching a film which is based on a play. It’s like recreating the magic of theatre on celluloid. 102 Not Out shrieks of similar finesse like that of a well-written play. In every sequence, the Umesh Shukla film tries to subtly slip a lesson to our conscience, that we’ve heard a gazillion times but tend to forget.

102 Not Out is about self-reliance, which most of the elderly people fail to associate with. Babulal Wakharia puts the happiness of his life in the pocket of his negligent son who has abandoned his family to live in America. Dattatraya brings his spirit of living life on own condition, back to him. He simply puts a message across, ‘Aulaad jab nayalak nikle toh use bhool jaana chahiye, yaad rakhna chahiye to sirf uska bachpan.’

Amitabh Bachchan has never underplayed any character which has been assigned to him. Be it Piku, Pink or 102 Not Out, he simply wears the script and creates magic on the screen. His unblemished performance in the film didn’t come to us as a surprise, as we’ve seen the megastar weaving magic on the screen hundreds of times.

Rishi Kapoor had us with his unbelievingly amazing performance in Kapoor & Sons; in which, with the help of prosthetic makeup and the art he already possess, he went on winning the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. Another one to come for 102 Not Out, without any second thoughts. It won’t be an overstatement to say that Rishi Kapoor was the show stealer in the film. The emotions of anger, grief and warmth have been projected pitch-perfectly by the Amar Akbar Anthony actor.

Talking about Jimit Trivedi, he’s one of the best supporting cast a film can have. Last time, I saw him in Akshay Kumar’s superhit film Bhool Bhulaiya, in which he left an imprint on her mind with his short but impactful performance. Jimit as Dhiru, is as notable as industry’s two of the best actors were in the film.

However, 102 Not Out was a kind of film which rather stresses on details than setting a pace of story. One might find this film boring and dull, if they’re not used to watching the films that believe in beauty of subtlety. The first half of the film is spent entirely on Babulal Vakharia’s emotional resurrection instead of pushing the story further. And we’re glad that the writer did that!

Amitabh Bachchan’s way of handling the situation was forceful and might seem cringe-worthy to some. But that’s how even our medicines work. They don’t taste good, they might have side effects but it will do what it’s required to do in the first place. That’s how Babulal Vakharia’s teaching tactics are in the film.

Won’t say 102 Not Out is a stupendously fabulous. But films as such should be made every now and then to remind us how to live (Which we tend to forget so easily, isn’t it?)