The oldest person in verifiable recorded history was Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who topped out at 122 years. Other cultures have disputed this record and today’s film seems to have made up its own. Seriously, fellas, does google not exist in India? Given how many times I have called tech support in my life and ended up on the phone with Mumbai, I find that a bit hard to believe. Point being, I expect this record to be broken in my lifetime … not by a man and not by an American. That didn’t stop today’s comedy about a man trying to break this record if only to teach his son a lesson. Go for it, great, great, great grandpa!
Dattatraya Vakharia (Amitabh Bachchan) is 102. Bachchan is 75 in real life, but that’s irrelevant. Big Datta is still the life of the Ganges past the century mark, and comes home one day with a lifesized cardboard cutout of his goal: the 118 year-old Ong Chong Tun Peng – I’m really baffled as to why the screenplay made this guy up. While this particular world record seems reasonable without an ounce of research, it isn’t. Women live longer than men, and the oldest women outlive the oldest men; I’m guessing the screenplay desperately wanted a “fun-loving” male role model for great gramps. Well, gee, why didn’t you just make him Indian, too?
Great gramps lives with his seventysomething son, Babulal (Rishi Kapoor). Babu is about as fun as a praying contest. Undeterred by amusement of any kind, Babu sits at home patiently waiting for the day to end and then doing it again tomorrow. When Big Datta announces he’s going for the world record of age, he looks up the secrets to longevity and discovers one key is not getting into a rut, or surrounding yourself with zombified humans. As Babu is the downer in Big Datta’s immediate life, the conclusion is obvious – he has to send his son away to an old folks home. Big Datta cracks a joke about breaking two world records: one for longevity and one for being the only person in history to send his son to a retirement home.
Babu balks, of course, and Big Datta gives him a separate option: live with my “conditions.” (i.e “Do what I say or I’m sending you away”) and this is where 102 Not Out becomes
fun. Task #1, for instance, involves getting his 75-year-old widower son to write a love letter. (#3 involves duckies and a security blanket.) OK, this is cute – and the film is cute for a while. And then, suddenly and without notice, 102 Not Out gets mean spirited, even angry. Whaaaaa? The plot twist after intermission so took me off guard, I couldn’t hate this movie even though it represented something illogical and completely anathema to me.
I don’t expect my readers to see this film. Why would you? 102 Not Out is a (relatively) non-musical Indian comedy that morphs into a rant. It’s an odd film even by Indian standards, especially given the sub-two hour runtime. You know I see a lot of films. And sometimes, yeah, there isn’t point in reading my words and seeing what I see, but there are other times in which … it makes even less sense to do so. Have a great day.
A comedy for those old and grey
About making your tart a soufflé
They say that with age
Along comes the sage
Is that why Bollywood films last all day?
Rated PG, 102 Minutes
Director: Umesh Shukla
Writer: Saumya Joshi
Genre: Finding the fun, then strangling it
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Old folks with generational complexes
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Curmudgeons
