102 Not Out

Story:

102 Not Out is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film directed by Umesh Shukla and written by Saumya Joshi. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor in lead roles portraying father-son duo for the first time. It also stars Jimit Trivedi in a supporting role.

PLOT

Dattatraya Vakharia (Amitabh Bachchan) is a lively 102-year-old who lives his life to the maximum and takes everything in a jovial way for his heart is that of a 26-year-old youngster regardless of his age. His 75-year-old son, Babulal Vakharia (Rishi Kapoor), is his exact opposite for he believes that he is now too old and fragile to enjoy life and lives a routine life. Dhiru (Jimit Trivedi) is an employee at the nearby pharmacy who delivers medicines art the Vakharias’ residence. Dattatraya’s goal is to break the record of the oldest living person on Earth which is held currently by a Chinese man. He must live for 16 more years to accomplish his goal but has to stay away from negative-minded people for maintaining his health to live that long. Therefore, Dattatraya threatens to send his son to an old age home which makes him worried and disappointed as he is habituated to stay and sleep in his home since these many years. Dattatraya agrees to not send Babulal to the old age home on a condition that Babulal must fulfill certain conditions, which his father would impose on him on a regular basis.

The film revolves on the conditions given to Babulal, which he hesitates to fulfill initially but fulfills them due to the fear of going to the old age home. The conditions imposed on Babulal by his father changes his way of looking at life. The first condition is that Babulal must write a love letter to his deceased wife, Chandrika. After a lot of thinking, he submits the letter to his father, who laughs and enjoys reading the letter. In the second condition, Dattatraya visits Babulal’s regular doctor with Babulal and Dhiru, forcing Babulal to accuse the doctor of theft. Dattatraya’s idea was to break the connection between Babulal and his doctor so that Babulal stops going to the doctor’s clinic daily for a routine checkup. Babulal accepts the condition to stop visiting the doctor’s clinic daily without accusing him of theft. Later, Dattatraya tells Babulal that his third condition is to cut holes in his childhood blanket which is immediately rejected by the latter.

One condition that totally changes Babulal’s life is when he is sent with Dhiru to certain parts of Mumbai which includes a visit to Juhu Garden in Santacruz and St. Sebastian’s Church in Chembur. Dhiru is confused when Babulal feels nostalgic and bursts into tears after visiting the two places. Dattaraya informs Dhiru that he and Babulal regularly visited the garden in Babulal’s childhood, and that Babulal and his estranged son, Amol (Dharmendra Gohil), regularly visited the church for prayers. However, after Amol grew up, Babulal sent him to the USA only for his education but the latter settled and got married there instead, and has hardly contacted his father in all these years. After completing all the conditions, Babulal becomes sorrowed and distributes cake to young children on the streets. Babulal also completes the third condition of cutting holes in his childhood blanket and begins seeing life in a jovial way just like his father, leading a delighted Dattatraya to find it easier to complete his mission.

On Babulal’s birthday, Amol contacts him but Dattaraya, who considers Amol as a bad influence for Babulal, does not answer the phone call and also does not inform Babulal about it. The same day, the flowers sent by Amol are also intercepted by Dattaraya and not handed over to Babulal. Amol contacts again at night but once again Dattaraya does not inform Babulal about it, and deletes the call history from Babulal’s cellphone. The next day, Dattaraya hands over the flowers to Babulal, who becomes upset as they were not handed over to him earlier and contacts Amol to thank him for sending the flowers. Amol informs him about the two missed calls and that he is arriving in India the next month. Babulal gets angry with Dattaraya for withholding this information. Knowing that Amol’s motive is too claim himself as the heir to their property, Dattatraya then provides Babulal with his last condition to kick Amol out of the house, to which the latter disagrees for not wishing to behave rudely with his son, resulting in a fallout between them both.

After some days, Babulal enters Dattaraya’s room and finds that he has several placards that state words about rebelling about Amol’s entry into the house. Dattaraya reminds Babulal that his wife, Chandrika, had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in her last 28 days, and the only thing she remembered till her last moment was Amol, who in fact did not even arrive to meet his mother citing lack of proper leave notice at his company.

To showcase the greediness of Amol, Dattaraya contacts him and receives an auto reply that Amol is unavailable. He ends up recording the message that he and Babulal have to discuss about property, causing Amol to immediately answer the phone call and Dattaraya convinces him to reach Mumbai on the 19th of that month. Dattaraya begins reading Amol’s letters which he had written to Babulal and were intercepted in between by Dattaraya; each letter turns out to be materialistic and ends with “I hope you understand.” Despite this, Babulal still informs Dattaraya that he will not follow his last condition, and even Dhiru supports him for the first time, believing that Amol should be given a second chance.

The next day, Babulal gives Dattaraya an affidavit which states that he is transferring his share of property to Amol. Dattaraya finally reveals that he has been diagnosed with brain tumour long back and does not have much time left to live. The old age home and breaking that record was just a ruse because he wished for his son to get rid of his negative approach to life. Babulal finally realises Amol’s true intentions, and when Amol arrives in India, Babulal insults and humiliates him in public and demands him to return home from the airport itself.

A satisfied Dattaraya then tells Babulal that if there is an Amol then there is Dhiru also, indirectly asking him to accept Dhiru as the replacement for Amol. Dattatraya even tells Babulal to blow a whistle when he dies, to celebrate his outstanding feat, 102 years. At last, 102 not out becomes 102 out and Babulal whistles. Dhiru presents a recorded tape to Babulal with a message that Dattaraya had recorded two days before death. In that massage, Dattaraya states that he is sitting in a cloud with the same Chinese man besides him. He is telling the man that the record of the longest living person on Earth will be broken by his son, Babulal, himself after another 43 years.