Club 60

What is this fascination that Bollywood has suddenly got into with farting? And why would you make a man who is playing a 60+ year old fart ad nauseum ad inifinitum? And then, you make him wave his tennis racquet behind himself in an attempt to “clear the air”.  That is followed by a sheepish grin and an apologetic smile to his tennis partner.  That apology should instead be directed to the audience who has had enough of people farting on screen!!!!

Thankfully, that was one of the few low points of Club 60 which, otherwise is a reasonably enjoyable movie about – as the name suggests – a club of 60+ year old people.  Each one comes with a back story that is revealed bit by bit through the movie.  It starts with Dr. Saira (Sarika) and Dr. Tariq Hussain (Farooque Sheikh) who have just moved to Mumbai from Pune following the passing of their 22 year old son to a random gunning in Denver where he studies.

The Doctor couple moves into a swanky place in the south of the city – an apartment that they ironically wanted to gift to their son.  What they were not prepared for was one Manubhai Shah (Raghuvir Yadav) who barges into their life like an unpleasant storm.  He walks in at will and also chooses to drag Tariq across to the elite Club 60 to meet his friends – Mansukhani (Satish Shah), Zafar (Tinu Anand), Dhillon (Sharat Saxena) and Sinha (Vineet Kumar).

First time director Sanjay Tripathi proceeds to tell the tale of how Tariq slowly begins to appreciate Manubhai and his pals and how he overcomes the grief of the loss of his only son with a lot of support from Saira.  Each one of the Club 60 has a story that is equally painful or in some cases rank tragic.  Of course, one cannot say if the pain felt by Saira and Tariq was more or less than any of the others.  It will suffice to say though that both of them take solace with the fact that they are not alone.

Sanjay Tripathi really didn’t have to do much once he had the casting right.  In many ways, it is like picking the right team to work with, when you are the manager.  Spend time in getting the team right and you will spend very little time getting the job done.  Even the weakest link (read – not the most well-known) in the entire crew i.e. Vineet Kumar seemed like a natural.  I guess that comes with age and experience.  Refreshing to see the likes of Raghuvir Yadav and Satish Shah back in action.

The unfortunate part is that Tripathi gets the narration wrong at many points.  Firstly, he lets the movie drag on for at least 20 minutes more than it should have.  The dialogues are inspiring in parts especially the first few lines and the last few ones.  The music is vastly forgettable.  But the slice of life story with some decent humour, makes it a good watch.  It isn’t the best movie in a long time but it is a different story and worth watching.  6 on 10.  But wait for it to air on satellite.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zPVC1yI3IY