REVIEW: Lay your bets on 99
Cricket and betting were two of the major themes in last year's surprise hit Jannat. This year as the IPL fever hots up yet again, you have 99, a film that tells an engaging tale about match fixing, mobile phones and betting.
Starring Cyrus Broacha, Kunal Khemu, Soha Ali Khan and Boman Irani in the lead roles, 99 is no melodrama a-la Jannat.
Sachin (Kunal Khemu) and Zaramud (Cyrus Broacha) are two happy-go-lucky blokes who make their dough by duplicating mobile phone sim cards. One fine day with the police hot on their heels they steal an expensive Merc and accidentally ram it into a lamp post. As it turns out, the car belongs to a certain AGM (Mahesh Manjrekar), a local don.
To repay his loss, Sachin and Zaramud start working for the fellow and on one assignment are packed off to New Delhi to recover money from Rahul (Boman Irani)
Now Rahul is no small fry in the betting circles. His wins are big but his losses are even bigger. The chap's almost always in debt but there's nothing he can do about his compulsive betting habit, a fact his wife Jahnavi (Simone Singh) cannot stand.
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Meanwhile at the hotel they're staying, Sachin meets Pooja (Soha Ali Khan) a 'typical Delhi girl' who he instantly begins to like.
Soon enough it is time for Sachin and Zaramud to return to Mumbai with the money they have recovered from Rahul. On their way to the airport the bag gets stolen leaving the two men in the lurch.
Their only chance to recover all that money is the one match that Rahul plans to bet on... a match that might just be fixed.
99 is a classic example of a comic thriller. It takes situations that have actually happened and weaves a fictional story around it.
