Mere pyare Vijay Matthew, 69

Stills from the film Vijay 69

The opening sequence of the Yash Raj film, Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017) has the hero, Ayushmann Khurrana, jumping off a ledge. For what's meant to be suicide that we learn, right thereafter, it isn't.

Same with Yash Raj's Vijay 69 (2024), on Netflix, with Anupam Kher in the lead. This isn't a coincidence, because the producers are the same. But because the director is. That is, Akshay Roy.

Or maybe, it's subconscious. As Akshay laughs to me, "Oh, didn't realise that - maybe, it's just me jumping off in anticipation of how the films will be received!"

Vijay 69 is an odd film title. Tamil fans could've 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 named.

Thalapathy 69 (2025) is indeed Vijay's next.

The film Meri Pyari Bindu

The 69 against Vijay has no sexual connotation either. It's just the protagonist Vijay Matthew's age, that could be grammatically fixed with a comma after the name.

Anupam, 69, plays this lead, with the touch of a possibly Punjabi Vijay than a potentially Mallu Matthew. Either way, he's such a frickin' natural in this role that you wonder if Anupam - over four decades, 540-plus movies - may have spread himself thin, therefore, isn't as instantly rated among the greats.

This is easily among his greatest performances - so connected, warm, uncomplicated, understated… Just like the movie. Both a masterclass on keeping it super-simple.

Wherein Vijay, 69, competes in a triathlon (long-distance swimming, running, cycling) race for his final shot at achieving fame/self-worth.

I asked half-Punjabi, half-Parsi Akshay, 45, why he wrote-directed this story. He said it somewhat mirrored his own "self-image" at the point.

He chose to merge that thought with sports, that's been his passion, anyway. He picked triathlon to give the sport in the film, hence, the hero, multiple obstacles to overcome.

Conflict is, of course, elemental to any story. Beyond that, it's obvious why filmmakers are attracted to scripts with multiple obstacles.

Directed by Akshay Roy

Immediate inspiration is the business/act of filmmaking itself, which works the same way - from thinking, writing, greenlighting, production, post-production, down to a movie ever seeing the light of day, even then!

Hit/flop is another matter.

Akshay 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 Stephen's), from where my strongest memory of him is as Shylock (Merchant of Venice) on stage.

Thereafter, he joined Jamia's Mass Communications Research Centre (MCRC) that I dropped out of, chiefly assuming nothing worthwhile about media could be taught through a drab/dreary curriculum. Who knows, if I was right.

Akshay says Farhan Akhtar's Lakshya (2004), "shot in harshest conditions", that he first assisted on, was his "film school".

That's when he'd moved to Mumbai, along with others from MCRC: Alankrita Shrivastava (Lipstick Under My Burkha), Danish Aslam (Break Ke Baad), Aparna Purohit (ex-Amazon, now heads Aamir Khan Productions)…

For reasons above, I didn't watch/review Akshay's directorial debut, Meri Pyaari Bindu (MPB), when it opened in theatres, a week after Baahubali, and closed down soon enough.

Caught it years later. It'd developed a minor cult of sorts since. "I get a lotta ‘niche' love, from film clubs, li'l communes," Akshay tells me. MPB was a pure-bred, '90s-type romcom romp, with nods to old Hindi film songs.

The 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 forever!

The biggest catastrophe possible with Vijay 69 is the old man may not complete the triathlon. This feels refreshingly relaxed/reassuring, given the triggering darkness that descended on OTTs, films included, merely mirroring the darkness outside.

Don't think we realise this enough, since the pandemic itself has been relegated to a blind spot. We've all been through a lot. Excessive access to daily darkness, through social media, makes the fatigue worse.

Vijay 69 becomes then about being surrounded by genial old blokes - Sorry Meri Lorry's Guddi Maruti-Vrajesh Hirjee, the cutie Kunal Vijaykar in the hospice care, Chunky Panday, "channeling his old friendship with Anupam [onscreen]," as Akshay says.

Nothing earth-shattering. Love this (sometimes). Think Milind Dhaimade's Tu Hai Mera Sunday (2016, Hotstar), in a similar space; it's obviously not simply about a bunch of Bombayites searching for a field to play ball.

The description I've inevitably heard from those who've watched Vijay 69: "It's feel-good." Everyone I know has recommended it to their parents (me, included).

The older demographic being easily the most under-serviced target group in OTTs, while they possibly have more screen-time to spare.

For Akshay, 45, of course, Vijay 69 means the next triathlon obstacle - that's inevitably the next film to make, for a filmmaker - may not be as hard as 13 years it took him to debut with a feature; seven years to come out with the second!

He says, "Yash Raj and [producer] Maneesh Sharma stood by me throughout, though. Next gig should be sooner. Like everybody who's been around [over so many years], obviously, I've a trunk [full] of ideas." Go FTW.

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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