Mere pyare Vijay Matthew, 69

The opening sequence of the Yash Raj film Meri Pyaari Bindu 2017 has the hero Ayushmann Khurrana jumping off a ledge For whatrsquos meant to be suicide that we learn right thereafter it isnrsquotSame with Yash Rajrsquos Vijay 69 2024 on Netflix with Anupam Kher in the lead This isnrsquot a coincidence because the producers are the same But because the director is That is Akshay RoyOr maybe itrsquos subconscious As Akshay laughs to me ldquoOh didnrsquot realise thatmdashmaybe itrsquos just me jumping off in anticipation of how the films will be receivedrdquoVijay 69 is an odd film title Tamil fans couldrsquove confused Vijay for the actor aka Thalapathy followed by serial number of his production Which is often how working titles of Tamil superstar movies get namedThalapathy 69 2025 is indeed Vijayrsquos nextThe film Meri Pyari BinduThe 69 against Vijay has no sexual connotation either Itrsquos just the protagonist Vijay Matthewrsquos age that could be grammatically fixed with a comma after the nameAnupam 69 plays this lead with the touch of a possibly Punjabi Vijay than a potentially Mallu Matthew Either way hersquos such a frickinrsquo natural in this role that you wonder if Anupammdashover four decades 540plus moviesmdashmay have spread himself thin therefore isnrsquot as instantly rated among the greatsThis is easily among his greatest performancesmdashso connected warm uncomplicated understatedhellip Just like the movie Both a masterclass on keeping it supersimpleWherein Vijay 69 competes in a triathlon longdistance swimming running cycling race for his final shot at achieving fameselfworthI asked halfPunjabi halfParsi Akshay 45 why he wrotedirected this story He said it somewhat mirrored his own ldquoselfimagerdquo at the pointHe chose to merge that thought with sports thatrsquos been his passion anyway He picked triathlon to give the sport in the film hence the hero multiple obstacles to overcomeConflict is of course elemental to any story Beyond that itrsquos obvious why filmmakers are attracted to scripts with multiple obstaclesDirected by Akshay RoyImmediate inspiration is the businessact of filmmaking itself which works the same waymdashfrom thinking writing greenlighting production postproduction down to a movie ever seeing the light of day even thenHitflop is another matterAkshay and I have known each other since school He went to Mayo I was in Delhi A year apart we went to the same college St Stephenrsquos from where my strongest memory of him is as Shylock Merchant of Venice on stageThereafter he joined Jamiarsquos Mass Communications Research Centre MCRC that I dropped out of chiefly assuming nothing worthwhile about media could be taught through a drabdreary curriculum Who knows if I was rightAkshay says Farhan Akhtarrsquos Lakshya 2004 ldquoshot in harshest conditionsrdquo that he first assisted on was his ldquofilm schoolrdquoThatrsquos when hersquod moved to Mumbai along with others from MCRC Alankrita Shrivastava Lipstick Under My Burkha Danish Aslam Break Ke Baad Aparna Purohit exAmazon now heads Aamir Khan ProductionshellipFor reasons above I didnrsquot watchreview Akshayrsquos directorial debut Meri Pyaari Bindu MPB when it opened in theatres a week after Baahubali and closed down soon enoughCaught it years later Itrsquod developed a minor cult of sorts since ldquoI get a lotta lsquonichersquo love from film clubs lirsquol communesrdquo Akshay tells me MPB was a purebred rsquo90stype romcom romp with nods to old Hindi film songsThe way you recurrently hear the Waqt 1965 track Aage bhi jaane na tu in Vijay 69 for background score The worst thing that could happen in MPB is the childhood BFFs Ayushmann Parineeti Chopra from North Kolkata may remain friends foreverThe biggest catastrophe possible with Vijay 69 is the old man may not complete the triathlon This feels refreshingly relaxedreassuring given the triggering darkness that descended on OTTs films included merely mirroring the darkness outsideDonrsquot think we realise this enough since the pandemic itself has been relegated to a blind spot Wersquove all been through a lot Excessive access to daily darkness through social media makes the fatigue worseVijay 69 becomes then about being surrounded by genial old blokesmdashSorry Meri Lorryrsquos Guddi MarutiVrajesh Hirjee the cutie Kunal Vijaykar in the hospice care Chunky Panday ldquochanneling his old friendship with Anupam onscreenrdquo as Akshay saysNothing earthshattering Love this sometimes Think Milind Dhaimadersquos Tu Hai Mera Sunday 2016 Hotstar in a similar space itrsquos obviously not simply about a bunch of Bombayites searching for a field to play ball The description Irsquove inevitably heard from those whorsquove watched Vijay 69 ldquoItrsquos feelgoodrdquo Everyone I know has recommended it to their parents me includedThe older demographic being easily the most underserviced target group in OTTs while they possibly have more screentime to spareFor Akshay 45 of course Vijay 69 means the next triathlon obstaclemdashthatrsquos inevitably the next film to make for a filmmakermdashmay not be as hard as 13 years it took him to debut with a feature seven years to come out with the secondHe says ldquoYash Raj and producer Maneesh Sharma stood by me throughout though Next gig should be sooner Like everybody whorsquos been around over so many years obviously Irsquove a trunk full of ideasrdquo Go FTWMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper