Spoilers ahead…
Text:
99 Songs has been directed by Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy, but the speciality is that the story and music are by AR Rahman. We’re introduced to Jay (Ehan Bhat) and Sofia (Edilsy Vargas). Jay is a struggling musician and Sofia is a super-rich woman with a super-rich dad (Ranjit Barot). We think this is going to be the kind of film where the dad tells Jay, ‘No! You can’t marry my daughter,’ but this is not that kind of a film. In fact, her dad supports her and asks her to take care of a new business.
But Jay wants to be a musician, a creator. That’s why we get more scenes of Jay with his music than with Sofia. Sofia’s father is reluctant to let his daughter marry a struggling musician. I imagine that it’s something AR Rahman drew from his own life; he was a struggling musician at first, too. And then, he challenges Jay to become famous. He might need to create just one song for that—or even a hundred.
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Madan
April 17, 2021
I wonder what the BO fate of this movie will be now. Maybe it will do some decent business in TN and AP/Telangana but without a big name cast, even that may be difficult. With Mumbai already under lockdown and Delhi too steeply cutting occupancy in cinema halls (to the point where it makes more business sense NOT to screen a film), I don’t see this faring well in Hindi. Pity. Rahman waited so long to release this and he’s still going to end up with a financial dud after all this.
I see that it released back in Oct 2019 in Busan. Wonder why he couldn’t get it out just after Pongal last year. Would have still had long enough to get a decent run in the BO.
For a musophile, just the idea of watching movie scenes about the making of a musical track is fascinating. But I will have to wait till it comes to either of the OTT platforms now.
On another note, would have been nice if Sofia’s father had challenged Jay to become a music director and Jay apprentices under a stentorian taskmaster composer before moving on to find his own place under the sun. 😉 Even better if Sofia was a diehard fan of that composer and therefore got upset with Jay upstaging him and broke up.
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Madan
April 17, 2021
I am just pulling up the Tamil versions of the songs for the first time. I didn’t realize he has used different arrangements as compared to Hindi. Punnagai Maayai really comes alive with the Tamil arrangement which is more lush and strings based (as well, Haricharan is a better singer than Armaan Malik).
OTOH Poyisonna Posikiduven simply doesn’t have the flow of Soja Soja. I also miss the “I’ll put a bullet through your heart” refrain. It works well in that song because it’s already very jazz base, whereas Posikiduven simply doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way.
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Anonymous Violin
April 19, 2021
I’m really hoping this movie runs at least for another couple of weeks, until my vaccine immunity has completely built up. Haven’t experienced anything on the big screen since Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal, and this seems like the perfect candidate. And much like Madan said, I’m intrigued by the scenes about making musical tracks.
Unfortunately, in the face of fare like Godzilla vs Kong, I’m not sure if the theaters here will still have it in 2 weeks time. Hope ARR is enough of a draw to sustain until then.
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Aman Basha
April 19, 2021
Given the complete lack of buzz even around possible losses, it seems 99 Songs is a proper washout. For a musical, it’s almost criminal that the songs were so uninspiring and the writing seems a letdown, though most critics, stuck in Rahman nostalgia, seem to have gone very easy on this film. It’ll be interesting to see what ARR brings to the table with something like Heropanti 2. Something like what he did with Vijay or what he used to do with Prabhu Deva?
PS: How come no one is talking about the Hrithik look-alike.
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Madan
April 22, 2021
” For a musical, it’s almost criminal that the songs were so uninspiring and the writing seems a letdown,” – You have expressed bluntly the point I was trying to make in a more considerate way in the other thread. I wouldn’t call the songs uninspiring but it did strike me that the Dil Bechara soundtrack was so much better when it wasn’t Rahman’s own script. Why weren’t the songs more fresh for Rahman’s more venture; pretty weird, that.
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Naren M
May 24, 2021
Watched the movie on netflix and it was quite immersive and impressive. The drugging sequence needed better writing. The protagonist should have voluntarily done it as a sin instead of it being an accident, to justify the punishment he undergoes later.
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anonymousviolin20
June 17, 2021
Finally managed to catch the film (though not in the theater like I hoped).
The film was an interesting experiment but also a mixed bag. ARR’s music was a major support, especially in the sagging sections. I have to make a special mention of “O Ashiqua”. It was already my favorite song in the album, but the usage of its cues in certain spots, and finally the actual placement of the song were beyond my expectations. They really stuck the landing there, and good thing too, considering that it’s probably the core of the film.
I also enjoyed the portions set in Shillong.
Like Naren said, I also thought the drugging sequence needed better writing. Definitely the weakest part.
Overall, not a bad film, but I’ll take ARR the musician over ARR the film maker for now.
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Madan
June 17, 2021
anonymousviolin: Thanks for your review. Where (which app) did you watch the film?
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anonymousviolin20
June 17, 2021
@Madan
I found it on Netflix.
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Madan
June 19, 2021
Watching in HIndi because I realized quickly that the film had been shot in Hindi and the Tamil dubbing wasn’t syncing with it. Moreover, the mileu was clearly Mumbai-based.
An unintentionally hilarious note about the subtitle captions: the CM Prabhakar tells Jay that he is particularly fond of J S Bach’s fugues. It is subtitled as “I am fond of fugues that have feeling.” The guy who did the subtitles misheard J S Bach as jazbaat! 😛 Oddly apt that.
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Madan
June 19, 2021
Through with the film. It was very sincere and full of feeling in a way a lot of movies aren’t anymore and I really appreciated that, even though some of the developments were clearly quite contrived or cliche. I was also both fascinated and amused by ARR’s unrelenting optimism about music. To take off from what Naren said, basically nothing that happens is really Jai’s fault (or his mother’s for that matter). How could that possibly be, they are ‘sachcha’ musicians, right? Even his father saying music ruined their lives is just him being a stupid and jealous shithead in essence, where a plotline of a failed musician or one who succeeded and got led into the dark side wanting to shield his son from that field would have been more grounded. If Obama made a film about America, what would that be? That’s the sort of film Rahman has made. Circa 2021, I am taking Steven Wilson’s more pessimistic “One of the wonders of the world is going down/And noone cares enough” more to the point.
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anonymousviolin20
June 19, 2021
I remember ARR saying in the interview that there were 3 or so scripts he had in mind and that this is the one they chose to flesh out. Now I’m curious about the ones he shelved. Would they have been better than this?
And @Madan:
I agree with your observations. The film has a lot of heart/conviction (which is what made the O Ashiqa sequence work for me), but surely it could have benefited from a bit more brains.
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Madan
June 20, 2021
anonymousviolin: Speaking of which, I also agree that O Ashiqa worked best with the picturization. Jwalamukhi too came alive with the visuals. In general, the picturization was quite satisfying.
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