Akshay Roy’s Vijay 69 has a sparkling innocence embedded in its frames, whether it is the playfulness in its colour palette, with an even spread of blues and oranges, or the lively charm invoked by the writing. Everything feels delightfully animated, right from the performances which are pitched on a note higher than usual to the eccentric appearances of the characters.
It is a world that seems to have come out of a children’s comic book and that is blended with a cheerfully mature tale of a foul-mouthed oldie Vijay Matthew (Anupam Kher), a former expert swimmer, who faces an existential crisis at 69. This ironic union of its dreamy style with the profuse irritation of the protagonist feels fresh and joyous. Yet, it struggles to reach a heartwarming crescendo in the finale.
The first time we meet Vijay is on a pavement leading to the Gateway of India as he contemplates jumping into the sea. His face carries the weight of an unfulfilled life, and his eyes dwells in the past of what could have been. “He was a good rummy player and a champion garba dancer,” says his friend Fali Bathena (Chunky Panday) as he awkwardly tries to recall the achievements of Vijay at the funeral prayers later.
His friends and family roll their eyes and make faces sitting below on wooden benches. Two kids talk about how Vijay’s body was not found. “He will return as a ghost!”, one of them remarks. By then, Fali’s failing eulogy has to recover and he turns sentimental in his next breath to say, “Vijay mara nahi, Vijay marte nahi”. A door creaks open and Vijay comes walking along the aisle of his own funeral.
A genuinely funny opening scene is followed by a sequence that further establishes the void that Vijay feels. He confronts Fali for writing a poor eulogy and to recount only his rummy skills over the remarkable life that he led. But, has he really? Vijay realises that he has rather lived an uneventful life with only a single achievement to his name: Bronze medal in National Swimming Championship. Later, as he comes to terms with this dread, we see him going to sleep in the casket made for his funeral. A beautiful moment.
Quickly then, Vijay sets his sights on doing something through which people will remember him. Looking online for others who achieved great feats in old age, he decides to complete the triathlon at 69 and become the oldest person to do so. His rival is 18-year-old Aditya (Mihir Ahuja), who is going to be the youngest participant. Akshay looks at the entire ordeal not with an ounce of pity but with touches of empathy.
His gaze is not stuffed with extreme sentimentality that comes while telling stories of the old; rather, it tries to understand and evoke. He does well in establishing characters and the world which they inhabit. It is in the later scenes that the inventiveness, seen earlier in the writing, dries up. What it ends up taking shape of is a rather convenient and simplistic idea of ‘chasing dreams’ and that age is just a number.
There are moments where it tries to briefly reflect upon leading a happening life and whether it is necessary to do so. That meaning ultimately lies in savouring relationships. Yet, the outcome is not as effective as it should have been due to its singular dependence on making it all about the triathlon instead.
What makes the film take a flight in its moments of glory then are the performances. Chunky Panday uses an unusual accent in line with his caricatured Italian from the Housefull franchise. He has a cheerful screen presence with some cheeky one-liners that become funny with his delivery.
Through all of them, however, it is Anupam who starkly embodies the anxieties of old age in everything that he does. Wearing a thick grey moustache and unkempt half-bald head, it is his eyes that reciprocate what it means to be Vijay. Anupam abuses like Vijay, wails like him and loves like him. It is at once a quiet departure from the sketchy roles that the actor has played in many comedies and a quaint arrival in the realm of restraint in the dramatic portions.
All said and done, the film doesn’t really become the warm embrace that it sets out to be. Somewhere along the way, it loses itself. As it progresses then, there is less to feel and more to just see. We know how it’s going to end and its tragedy lies in not veering away from the familiar places. It leaves you with an incomplete feeling, a sense of there being something more waiting to be realised. More fun to be had, tears to be shed, hearts to be mended.
Film: Vijay 69
Director: Akshay Roy
Cast: Anupam Kher, Chunky Panday, Mihir Ahuja, Vrajesh Hirjee, Guddi Maruti, Paritosh Sand, Kunal Vijaykar
Streamer: Netflix
Rating : 3/5