Netflix and YRF Entertainment’s Vijay 69 is the story of a 69-year-old man, Vijay Mathew (Anupam Kher), who realises that he hardly has any achievements to his credit, which could be remembered after he is dead and gone. Swimming has been his passion and so he has only trained people to swim in the local club. Now, at 69, he decides to do something remarkable by participating in a triathlon and thereby becoming the oldest man to complete it. Towards this end, he gets started to train in cycling and walking, defying friends and family. Kumar (Vrajesh Hirje) coaches him till be gets embroiled in a controversy which prompts the sponsor as well as the coach to leave him. But 18-year-old Aditya (Mihir Ahuja), the youngest participant, takes it upon himself to now coach Vijay, with his girlfriend, Malti (Ketika Sharma), doing her bit to propagate good things about Vijay. Fali (Chunkey Panday), a close friend of Vijay, also does all under his control to ensure that Vijay can complete the triathlon. But he is disqualified at the last moment. What happens thereafter? Is Vijay able to participate and complete the triathlon?
Akshay Roy has written the story which may be heartfelt but which also looks forced at several points. Akshay Roy’s screenplay is quite engaging, especially in the first half. The post-interval portion appears convenient and, therefore, loses impact to an extent. The drama also gets repetitive in the second half. Sometimes, it appears as if Roy did not want to leave any opportunity to appeal to the senses and, therefore, included every trick in the bag. Akshay Roy’s dialogues, with additional dialogues by Abbas Tyrewala, are entertaining.
Anupam Kher lives the role of Vijay Mathew. Chunkey Panday is very realistic as Fali. Mihir Ahuja stands his own as Aditya. Guddi Maruti is endearing as Mrs. Bakshi. Vrajesh Hirjee does well as coach Kumar. Kunal Vijayakar is appropriate as the cancer patient. Sulagna Panigrahi has her moments as Deeksha, daughter of Vijay Mathew. Ravish Desai is adequate in the role of Vijay’s son-in-law, Abhimanyu. Dharmendra Gohil performs ably as Aditya’s manipulative father. Saanand Verma lives the role of the scheming journalist. Paritosh Sand is good in a brief role as Vijay’s friend, Ranjit Kumar. Ketika Sharma is nice as Aditya’s girlfriend, Malti. Pawan Chopra (as Rakesh), Ekavali (as Vijay Mathew’s wife), Namit Khanna (as the priest), Ayan Hasan Ali Khan (as Akhil), Gyan Prakash (as Vineet), Raj Sharma (as Joginder), Adrija Sinha (as YouTuber Ruhi), Jiten Mukhi (as the CEO of Boot Inc., the sponsors), Pranay Singh (as Bunty), Purab Mody (as Rohit), Ashwin Mushran (as Jaag), Jacqueline Fernandez (as Sunny), Padmini Sardesai (as Mrs. Joshi), Abhay Joshi (as Sunil Saxena), Anil Chandnani (as the uncle in the gymkhana), Agasthya Shanker (as minister Goenka), and Rajan Kavatra, Masood Akhtar, Sharmila Goenka and Girish Thapar (all four as the triathlon association committee members) lend decent support.
Akshay Roy’s direction is fair. Gaurav Chatterji’s background music is alright. Sahil Bhardwaj’s cinematography is good. Sunil Rodrigues’ action and stunt scenes are functional. Meenal Agarwal’s production designing is proper. Manas Mittal’s editing is reasonably sharp.
On the whole, Vijay 69 is an average fare.
Released on 8-11-’24 on Netflix.
