99

One of the best movies I have ever seen .The film brought me back to my school days.

Not an avid kannada movie buff but stumbled on this movie thanks to Amazon Prime. Before watching I read up on the film and got to know it is a remake of another Tamil film titled 96. Since I had not seen the tamil film there was not reference point or benchmark. The premise of the film is very basic yet relatable and definitely had a lot of potential. A middle aged travel photographer meets his childhood girlfriend at a school reunion 20 years after they last saw each other. The girl has moved on and is married with a kid while the guy is still mourning over lost love. Stories about school life, friends, first crush will always have takers, we all love to go down that lane but strong characters make this journey memorable. This is precisely where 99 fails. Both the lead characters are very sketchy and does not connect as it should. What adds to the woes are some seriously mediocre performances and direction. Ganesh as Ram is a total misfit and unconvincing. Bhavana suffers mainly from a poorly written role and is not relateable. The actors playing younger version of the lead pair just about pass the muster while the supporting cast do their job well.

Music by Arjun Janya is average, the slow pace makes you feel that some of the songs are best skipped. Cinematography is nothing to write home about, direction could have been better so too the writing.

Overall not a great watch, 99 does fall short of expectations!

Poor acting from the lead pair.. average music..and BGM... better to watch original...not even the 50% of the original 96

The movie has a love story which is stretched over two and a half hours - An unmarried guy Ram (Golden Star Ganesh) meets his 1999 batch school love Janu (Bhavana) after 20 years at a school reunion and then he regrets on not expressing his love to her in the first place. The film revolves around a somewhat complicated love story where Ram hides his feelings within himself without unveiling it openly to Janu. The film also shows his state of mind as muddled and how he has lost his confidence to love someone else in his life as he's unable to forget her. The first half of the film is enchanting where their earlier school life in Theertahalli in Shivamogga is shown. The second half shows their present life and is quite a strain to watch. The actors Hemanth and Samikshaa who have played as younger Ram & Janu have performed brilliantly. Especially the cute and beautiful Samikshaa will steal your heart with her charming, sweet smile & acting. Ganesh & Bhavana have also delivered their performances very well. The cinematography by Santosh Rai is excellent and the music by Arjun Janya in this film which is his 100th one is quite good. Although there are some melodious tracks, they don't create much of an impact on the viewer. The film has a very slow pace and it drags at many places where silence & pauses are used with minimal dialogues. All in all you can watch this film if you have the patience to sit through a slow paced romantic film.

Throught the movie, the environment of the movie is very remenecent of both the year 1999's and the modern world of today. I liked the tone of the movie and the music but many aspects of the movie couldve been improved, especially the story area.