Vijay 69

One day, a foul-mouthed man on the cusp of 70 realises that he doesn’t have any achievement in his lifelog that will keep him alive for posterity. A national-level swimmer who didn’t strive enough to change the colour of his bronze medal, Vijay Mathew (Anupam Kher) is an ordinary old man seeking a sliver of gold dust. Having lost his supportive wife to cancer, he is withering from the inside and appears grumpy from the outside. Still, he hasn’t given up on the magic of life and doesn’t want those around him to undermine his leap of faith when an opportunity presents itself. Vijay decides to participate in a tough triathlon contest to make it to record books and give something back to his friends who stood by him.

The sports film Vijay 69, starring Anupam Kher, is about a sexagenarian who realises that he’s not achieved much in his life. He decides to become the oldest man to run a triathlon in India, trying to prove all the naysayers wrong. Anupam Kher ably steps to play the cranky senior citizen who finds new meaning with this ambitious goal. While filmmaker Akshay Roy’s is well-meaning and inspiring, it is a bit meandering in its storytelling that veers from full comedy to drama often.

There are some movies you just want to like before you watch them. Personal biases are an integral part of the cinema experience. For instance, I used to have a soft spot for stories that romanticised a version of myself: slice-of-life introvert tales or dysfunctional family dramas. My focus has now moved to aspirational old-people stories; perhaps it has something to do with my parents aging with all sorts of ailments. The prospect of watching Vijay 69, then, was an inviting one. Not only is it director Akshay Roy’s first film since the criminally underappreciated Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017), it stars Anupam Kher as Vijay Mathew, a 69-year-old widower who attempts to become India’s oldest triathlete. I went into the film expecting to revise my reality — of having a 71-year-old father allergic to physical fitness — for a few hours. A bit of sports thrown in can’t hurt matters. What could possibly go wrong? And what could possibly go wrong when you have to ask what could possibly go wrong?

On paper, ‘Vijay 69’ must have felt like a splendid idea. Old men dodder. They don’t go about being potty-mouthed, or making sad sex jokes. How about getting Vijay Mathew, a ripe 69, to have a vocabulary which is more foul than fair, even if he has reached grandfather status? Next, how about setting him an impossible task? Even the fittest baulk at attempting the triathlon. Why not get our elderly hero to have a dash at it? Vijay lives in a house surrounded by the memories of his dead wife, the only one who used to encourage him in his endeavours, the chief of which seems to be getting ranked in a swimming race. Everyone else, including his dearest friend Fali (Chunky Panday donning a grey wig and the broadest Parsi accent that can be mustered), thinks he’s gone bananas.

69 की उम्र में विजय मैथ्यू को अहसास होता है कि उसने पूरे जीवन में आखिर किया क्या? कल को वह मर गया तो लोग उसकी तारीफ में क्या बोलेंगे? वह तय करता है कि वह ट्रायथलन में हिस्सा लेगा और 67 की उम्र में ट्रायथलन पूरी कर चुके किसी शख्स का रिकॉर्ड तोड़ेगा। ट्रायथलन यानी एक साथ डेढ़ किलोमीटर स्विमिंग, 40 किलोमीटर साइक्लिंग और दस किलोमीटर की दौड़। क्या विजय यह सब कर पाएगा? कर ही लेगा क्योंकि सपनों की कोई एक्सपायरी डेट नहीं होती। चलिए जी, यह तो हुई कहानी की बात। इस किस्म की फिल्मों की कहानियां तो प्रेरक होती ही हैं। इसकी भी है। लेकिन ऐसी फिल्मों में कहानी से बढ़ कर होता है उसका ऐसा वाला प्रेज़ेंटेशन जो दर्शकों के रोंगटे खड़े कर दे, उनके दिलों में भावनाओं का ज्वार पैदा कर दे, उनका दिमाग झंझोड़ दे और जिसे देख कर लगे कि अगर इस फिल्म के हीरो की तरह हमने यह नहीं किया तो फिर क्या किया। लेकिन अफसोस यह फिल्म इस मोर्चे पर नाकाम रही है, बुरी तरह से। दिक्कत असल में इस फिल्म की लिखाई के साथ है। अक्षय रॉय ने कहानी का आइडिया तो अच्छा सोच लिया और उसे ट्रायथलन के साथ जोड़ कर अच्छा विस्तार भी दे दिया लेकिन उसी कहानी को एक स्क्रिप्ट के तौर पर बुनते और उसमें किस्म-किस्म की घटनाओं व किरदारों को चुनते समय वह फैल गए और नतीजे के तौर पर जो बन कर आया वह न सिर्फ रूखा है बल्कि सूखा भी है और पिलपिला भी।

The never-say-die mantra of its 69-year-old protagonist is what forms the crux of Vijay 69. This is a story of spirit, spunk and resilience which is birthed within Vijay Mathew when he, ironically, is given up for dead. Played by Anupam Kher with the kind of chameleonic ease that has seen the actor make 500-plus films in 40-odd years, Vijay Mathew’s moment of epiphany arrives in the film’s initial moments when he lands up at his own ‘funeral’. When former swimming coach Vijay is spotted ‘diving’ into the sea in the middle of the night and not turning up till the morning, his friends and family assume the worst. The truth is that Vijay was spending the night at a drunken sesh and when he stumbles on to his coffin the next morning, it is a wake-up call for him.