102 Not Out

Dattatraya Vakharia is a hundred and two and wants to become the oldest man in the world. His son Babulal is seventy five and gave up living years ago: the same routine, the same cardigan, the same silence. The father threatens to put him in a care home and sets one condition: he has to learn to enjoy himself. Umesh Shukla directs. Amitabh Bachchan plays the father and Rishi Kapoor the son. The source is Saumya Joshi's Gujarati play. The casting is the event. Bachchan and Kapoor had appeared in many films together but a long gap had intervened, and this brought them back after twenty seven years. The subject is not old age but how old age is lived. Babulal has stopped not because he is old but because he considers himself old, and the narrative is built on that. The second subject is heavier: Babulal's own son has not come back for years, and the family does not discuss it. The last section is given to that silence being broken. Because the source is a play, almost all of it takes place in one house and rests on the scenes between the two actors. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian family comedy and want to see two great actors together. Who it is not for: the humour is simple, the plot is thin, and the emotional ending is prepared far too visibly.