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99 Songs movie review: AR Rahman film thoughtfully embraces the theatrical musical genre

Ehan Bhat’s impassioned performance in 99 Songs complements AR Rahman and the director’s vision

A story and production by composer AR Rahman will, characteristically, be a musical. The narrative of this romantic drama is fused together with not 99 but 14 songs. The story of a struggling musician with a tragic backstory determined to overcome a challenge in order to be worthy of the approval of his lover’s wealthy father is as old as the hills.

Rahman’s story and Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy’s screenplay (the latter also directs) follows the tropes of the genre suffusing a tested narrative with visual spectacle, drama and heartfelt performances by lead actors Ehan Bhat who plays composer-singer Jay and Edilsy Vargas as the mute Sophia.

Jay believes one song can change the world but the unspeaking Sophia’s businessman father disagrees. Sophia is a mute spectator to her life as her father Mr Singhania (Ranjit Barot) sets Jay a seemingly insurmountable task – compose 100 songs before I let you marry my daughter. Singhania’s attitude is commonplace – artistic pursuits are often regarded as inferior and indulgent.

Haunted by his own father’s disregard and dislike of musical pursuits, accompanied by his college friend (Tenzin Dalha), the conflicted Jay embarks on a journey that takes him into musically charged Shillong. A pianist and singer, Jay is no purist. He uses technology to compose and learns from all those around.

As Sophia suffers silently, Jay’s world opens up to new musical influences, colourful characters and a glittering jazz scene. Each scenario is boosted by Rahman’s score and songs. There’s a beautiful musical piece where Jay is talking about his journey into music through the sounds and rhythms of India.

Look past the occasionally overworked lyrics and 99 Songs takes you by surprise. Ehan Bhat’s impassioned performance, as the lost soul seeking solace in his music, complements Rahman and Krishnamoorthy’s vision. On the flipside, in her own life story, Sophia is a woman without agency. She’s the delicate girl who finds expression in her art, but she’s also the victim who can’t fight back.

Rahul Ram, Lisa Ray and Manisha Koirala play characters who nudge along Jay’s story. Krishnamoorthy’s sweeping and fantastical visualisation is supported by the cinematography (Tanay Satam and James Cowley) and production design (Aparna Raina) and Rahman’s songs are sung by Sashwat Singh as Jay’s singing voice.

This is Rahman unfettered by studios and someone else’s vision. It’s a collaborative creation that thoughtfully embraces the theatrical musical genre.

99 Songs released in cinemas today in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Rating: ***

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‘99 Songs’ movie review: Composer AR Rahman, and not the writer, is who we need more of

The academy award-winning musician’s debut effort as a writer falls way short of being an engaging film.

Updated - April 16, 2021 05:04 pm IST

Ehan Bhat and Edilsy Vargas in ‘99 Songs’

Music is powerful. It is soothing, can heal and effect a change across the world. AR Rahman, the writer and composer of 99 Songs , is living proof. Unfortunately, on the evidence of 99 Songs , writer Rahman does not yet possess the nuance required to seamlessly translate that concept to the big screen.

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99 Songs follows Jay (Ehan Bhat) — an aspiring musician, whose childhood we learn through montages and flashbacks as the story progresses. He grows up with a father who detests music, but the protagonist finds his calling anyway.

He is in love with a mute girl, Sophia Singhania (Edilsy Vargas), the daughter of a rich industrialist. He wishes to marry Sophia but we have a stereotypical dad who doesn’t believe in Jay’s dreams of becoming a musician. When Jay stands his ground, the dad lays down a challenge — compose 100 songs before he can come around asking his daughter’s hand in marriage.

• Cast: Ehan Bhat, Edilsy Vargas, Lisa Ray, Tenzin Dalha and Manisha Koirala
• Director: Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy
• Storyline: An aspiring musician is set a target by the father of the girl he wishes to marry — compose 100 songs, a journey which turns his life upside down.

And so Jay sets out on a journey that turns both his and Sophia’s worlds upside down. How the duo reunites by overcoming hardships, self-doubt and infidelity rumours form the rest of the plot.

In its visual narrative, 99 Songs is a nerd fest — especially for those who work closely with musical instruments. There are fabulous shots of the music making process that can only serve the interests of a niche community. The issue which serves as the film’s undoing is the boring, old (read as: done to death) story line, and the familiar tropes.

As someone who looks like a teenage version of Hrithik Roshan, Ehan Bhat looks ambitious — to play the part of Jay, but there is no way artistes can get a grip on their performance when the story just ambles, and that too towards a predictable end. The ambling affair is more pronounced in certain portions — like when we are introduced to a flashback sequence of Jay’s mom, the general feeling is, “Speed up things, please!”

Films like 99 Songs need not necessarily bank heavily on a unique screenplay; it is a musical, audiences walk in seeking an experience of a different kind, and which composer Rahman does provide in abundance — the Jazz club sequences in Shillong, ‘Jwalamukhi’ track and the many piano riffs are a treat to savour. However, the success of a musical also rests on tying the viewer emotionally to the conquest of the protagonist.

99 Songs essentially being a Hindi film — the dialogues are dubbed, which does make you feel like you are watching a Jackie Chan film on Star Vijay on a Sunday (90s kids will get this) — there is little of relevance to a South Indian audience, much less a Tamil audience. The protagonists are rich people — a trope very common in Bollywood but not so much in Tamil cinema, at least in the new millennium. This presents a very interesting proposition for an audience conditioned to see their protagonists as one among the masses; so at the outset it is tough to see how Jay’s pursuits would find the emotional connect with the masses for whom the film is made.

Secondly, successful musicals — for example, School of Rock , bank on an engaging screenplay. 99 Songs lacks it.

Interestingly, there is VFX in this musical whose final product seems more a misplaced idea than how it seemed when it germinated in the creator’s head. However, certain sequences do land well, like when Jay has an out-of-body experience — when he is touched, literally, by the goddess of music (or his mom) — are nuanced additions to the storytelling, but beyond that there is little else to Jay or his pursuits that keeps us invested.

At some point, Manisha Koirala’s character in the film remarks: “Music will be the last remaining magic in this world.” At least in the case of 99 Songs , it is true, and especially because good scripts and engaging screenplays are going extinct at a dangerous pace in Indian cinema.

‘99 Songs’ is currently playing in theatres

Published - April 16, 2021 04:53 pm IST

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'99 songs' movie review: This musical misses a lot of notes

It is app ropriate that AR Rahman has written the story of 99 songs. The film works on the belief that “music is the last surviving magic in the world” and who better than Rahman to try and prove it. With 99 Songs, the ace composer, with help from screenwriter and director Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy, aims to proclaim that music can change the world. While there is no doubt that this lofty ideal is heartwarming, the translation of the same on screen doesn’t quite cut it. 99 Songs is essentially about a gifted musician finding it in himself to compose 100 songs to reclaim the love of his life.

Both the reason for his reclamation and the love story at the centre of it all are flimsy. If one can’t empathise with the lovers in a love story, there’s a problem. When we meet Jay (Ehan Bhat in a promising debut) and Sophia (Edilsy Vargas), they are already headover- heels in love. Jay is a musician, and Sophia, who is mute, is an acclaimed painter. Their worlds have seemingly met already. The writers choose to waste no time in the meet-cutes and wooing, but 99 Songs is a film that might have actually benefitted from some of that. The blossoming of this love story would have lent a lot of poignancy considering the complexities of their equation.

Meanwhile, what the film does expand upon beautifully is the friendship between Jay and Polo (an assured Tenzin Dalha). Right from Jay standing up for Polo when the latter faces racial abuse in college, to Polo opening the doors of his Shillong house to facilitate Jay’s quest for 100 songs, their friendship is the lifeline of the film. In fact, it is Polo’s actions that have a bigger bearing on Jay’s life than Sophia’s. It is in these Shillong portions that we are introduced to Lisa Ray and Manisha Koirala, who play thankless cameos just to further Jay’s journey.

At least, Lisa’s jazz singer Sheela has a song where she exudes a whole lot of pizzazz. Manisha, on the other hand, is criminally underutilised as the head of a rehab centre. Interestingly, it is in Shillong that we also see Rahman bring to screen his long-standing grudge against musicians being painted as druggies or alcoholics. Jay refuses to smoke up or drink and still manages to write 100 songs. While there is a lot of clarity with regards to the character arc of Jay, and to an extent, Polo, the others are disappointingly one-note. 99 Songs is also about two fathers with contrasting, yet weirdly similar takes on music. If Jay’s father pulls off a Abhimaan Amitabh Bachchan to wrest music away from a young Jay, Sophia’s father wants his prospective son-in-law to approach music more as a business and not as passion.

These layers don’t really add up to give us a coherent film. The biggest strength of 99 Songs is the cinematography of Tanay Satam and James Cowley. Their mesmerising visuals bring in a magical quality to the film, which aspires to be a mythical musical. Be it the song sequences or the dream world inhabited by Jay, or even Sophia suddenly tapping into her inner gothness, the play with colours in 99 Songs keeps afloat its rather wafer-thin plot. The visuals also do an excellent job of enhancing the other strength of the film the music.

However, the visual extravaganza acts more as a standalone feature rather than cohering with the narrative. While the tale of a tortured soul going around the world to create music has been seen in quite a few films, some with Rahman’s music itself, 99 Songs does manage to pique our interest. However, in the search of that ‘one song to change our world’, 99 Songs swaps ingenuity for incredulity. When the simple love story at the centre is forgotten to drum in the message about the power of music, the film loses its bearings.

While there is no doubt that music does have the power to heal and to bring in a change and a lot more, the suspension of disbelief 99 Songs demands in the climactic portionsproves to be a bit too much. Riddled with questionable narrative choices but impressive visuals, 99 Songs still has a lot going for it. With raw performers with a lot of talent, a stellar support cast, and Rahman’s brilliant music, 99 Songs could have been the Rockstar of our times. But courtesy a few missteps, it falls into that special category of Rahman films that we often see crop up on social media — films that don’t quite do justice to Rahman’s music.

Director: Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy Cast: Ehan Bhat, Edilsy Vargas, Tenzin Dalha, Manisha Koirala, Lisa Ray

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99 Songs Movie Review

99 Songs Filmfare , Apr 16, 2021, 13:30 IST

  99 Songs is touted as a love story but the romance is secondary to the film’s basic theme, which is about a musician finding himself. They say that it takes 99 songs for a musician to make that one perfect song. Our hero Jay (Ehan Bhat), a college student doing his masters, is in love with fellow student, Sophie (Edilsy Vargas). Sophie is a fine artist and a fashion designer, though she cannot speak. And yet, the duo understand each other perfectly. Her super rich father (Ranjit Barot) doesn’t think that his daughter is worthy of Jay. Nevertheless, he makes Jay an offer about expanding into music and Jay heading that new concern. Jay turns that down as he wants to make a name for himself purely as a musician. Her father reminds him that it takes a musician to make at least a 100 songs to create something that touches the soul and Jay should only come back if he manages to do so. Thus, with the help of his friend from the North East, Polo (Tenzing Dalha), he travels to Shillong and gets introduced to Jazz music by the singer/owner of a nightclub (Lisa Ray). He becomes a trained jazz pianist through her mentorship and is on the way to fulfilling a part of his education. Circumstances lead him astray from the journey, till a mysterious stranger from his past (Rahul Ram) comes into his life and takes him back to his roots, completing his journey…

  How does a musician become a musician. It is the hours of riyaaz that shape him? Is the music in his/her genes? Is it the gift of God only given to some or can anyone achieve it. Should he concentrate just on one instrument or genre or reach out to different disciplines and forms? Does nature play a role in his choices? Is he a product of his guru, his mentor, or the sum of his experiences? The film’s story is written by AR Rahman, who has also produced the film. These are the kinds of questions that are generally asked of a musician and the film tries to answer them as truthfully as it can.

Director Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy has gone for a non-linear approach. The film juggles back and forth like a fevered dream at time. What we experience are glimpses of fractured memories juxtaposed by some haunting imagery. All this could be translated as an attempt to gaze into the mindscape of a musician. Sophie can’t speak and hence we see her taking out her angst, her fears on canvas. She paints like a girl possessed, making order out of chaos, the end result being award winning paintings. Her silent struggle is a mirror to Jay’s own attempts at finding himself. His tryst with madness has the touch of horror film tropes. Vishwesh is content with bombing us with images upon images and making us connect the dots ourselves, rather than spoon feeding us. The whole film feels like a visual experiment where we are subject to different sounds and scenes. The songs play out in the background, becoming a character in themselves. How much of it will be palatable to the audience remains to be seen. 

  The film is riddled with some brilliant cameos. Warina Hussain playing Jay’s classically trained mother who passed away at childbirth is a fine touch. The Sai bhajan picturised on her, sung by Bela Shende, is the best song of the film. Manisha Koirala plays the kindhearted warden of a mental asylum. She brightens up the proceedings with her brief role. Lisa Ray as the sultry jazz singer and dancer too feels like an apt choice. It was fun to see Rahul Ram and Ranjit Barot doing proper roles in films and being good in them. Tenzing Dalha too is good as a bestie willing to do anything for his friend. AR Rahman chose newcomer Ehan Bhat to play the protagonist of the film. The actor with the soulful eyes reminds you of Hrithik Roshan in some places. He displays a nervous energy in his performance -- something that goes in keeping with his character and redeems Rahman’s faith through his fine portrayal. His performance has a surety of purpose that belies his newbie status and he surely is a find. Edilsy Vargas, who hails from Dominican Republic, doesn’t have a speaking role as such but makes up for it through her expressive eyes and face. She does all that’s required for her role -- to be the angelic muse for the musician. Whether she’d go on to make a career in Hindi films like other foreign imports such as Katrina Kaif or Amy Jackson, only time will tell...

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The 99% Club: An Ode to the Almost-Perfect Movie

The 99% Club: You’ll find it, way past 98% on the Tomatometer, but just before 100%. Inside, a coterie of cinema’s practically-finest, movies promising an experience beyond most others – movies that are almost  perfect. These are the ones to warm hearts, stir the soul, call forth eruptions of laughter, and rattle your bones. To anyone who approaches to see and hear their stories, they will enthrall the audience…save the stray naysayer or two, of course.

Its members are fleeting; membership comes with no lifetime guarantee. Any additional Rotten reviews could toss the movie from the 99% Club and into the gutter that is a 98% score, to associate with the likes of Wizard of Oz and The Godfather .

You’ll notice most in the 99% Club are from this century. Movies may or may not be getting better, but they are getting reviewed more. When a work generates nearly 400 critics’ appraisals, its Tomatometer score can better endure Rotten reviews and sustain its 99% score. Classic films, by dint of having fewer reviews in written existence, can have their scores torpedoed by a single Rotten remark.

The 99% Club: On the cusp of triple-digit Valhalla. Come join in their almost-perfection. — Alex Vo

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‘99 Moons’ Review: On-Again, Off-Again

Instead of an engaging erotic romance, the film delivers a dull narrative of two lovers caught in a cycle of getting together and falling apart.

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By Claire Shaffer

Good erotic films are built on an atmosphere of tension. Maybe it’s repressed desire, or a ticking clock imposed on an affair by external forces, or two people with fundamentally different identities coming together against all odds. Jan Gassmann’s “99 Moons” shoots for all three, and yet the tension hangs limply throughout its nearly two-hour running time.

The Swiss film, opening in theaters Friday, stars Valentina Di Pace and Dominik Fellmann as Bigna and Frank, characters representing opposites on a spectrum of sexual agency. Bigna, a young scientist trying to advance in her profession by planning a research study in Chile, is controlling to a fault, hooking up with anonymous men in masks to fulfill an elaborate sexual fantasy that the viewer is thrown into during the opening scene. Frank, a loner, weaves his way through hazy nightclubs in search of something that Gassmann never quite articulates. The two meet up through one of Bigna’s contrived escapades, after which Frank immediately bursts into tears. Bigna is confused, and so are we.

What follows is a dull, “When Harry Met Sally”-style narrative in which the protagonists pursue each other, get together, and break up over bizarre misunderstandings, before the film jumps forward in time and the cycle repeats itself. (The film’s title comes from this structure; their time apart is measured pretentiously in “moons.”) Gassmann clearly wants to explore the state of love and sexuality in the 2020s — there are more than a few passing parallels to Joachim Trier’s “ The Worst Person in the World ” — but he succeeds only in conveying the pathologies of two people who can’t figure out what they want from each other.

99 Moons Not rated. In German, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. In theaters.

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99 Movie Review: A Copy-Paste Remake That Fizzles Out Due To Shoddy Performances

Language: Kannada

Cast: Bhavana, Ganesh

Director: Preetham

96 , the Tamil romantic drama, starring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha, hit the screens in the first week of October, 2018. And within seven months, its Kannada remake, featuring Ganesh and Bhavana, has occupied the theatres in Karnataka and other areas. This isn't a record to boast about since the story remains the same and the screenplay, for which director Preetham Gubbi takes credit, is a copy-paste from the original. The dialogues, too, feels translated from Tamil to Kannada.

Remakes are a hard nut to crack, for there are expectations to match and a general itch to inch ahead of the original. When Mungaru Male , the blockbuster Kannada film that put Ganesh on the map of stars, was remade in other languages, a similar pall of gloom had enveloped the minds of enraged movie buffs. Its Telugu remake, Vaana , had the same elements, yet nobody wanted to watch it. Now, history has repeated itself, but, this time, Ganesh is at the receiving end.

99 , with a few categorical changes, starting with the title and the protagonists' costumes, feels like an emotionless remake even though Ramachandra Thirthahalli (Ganesh) and Janaki Nagaraj (Bhavana) call it a night amidst tears of sorrow.

Also Read: Baradwaj Rangan's Review of 96

Two high school students—played by Hemanth (young Ramachandra) and Samikshaa (young Janaki)—in Thirthahalli navigate through the corridors of first love and feelings of jubilation and despair as they begin to unwrap the gifts presented by adolescence. Here, Janaki is a singer, named after the " Naguva Nayana " crooner S. Janaki, and Hemanth is a shy boy who doesn't quite know how to put his thoughts into words.

When they drift apart due to reasons that are beyond their control and come face-to-face twenty years later, in Bengaluru, the different truths that had led them down unhappy paths crumble. Theirs was a relationship that didn't involve cuddling, or even the simple act of expressing their affection for each other. It doesn't mean that the connection they had was flimsy. In fact, it goes on to prove that there are people in this world who are okay with not moving on (a rare quality indeed).

But what 99 doesn't get is the silent score that drives such narratives. By score, I'm not pointing at the background score; it's rather the mood that I'm underlining. The scenes where Ram jumps into panic mode the minute Janaki gets close don't dance to the tunes of humor. They become a farce as if Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) has possessed him.

All the gestures, including dialogue-delivery, are inspired by 96 , so these actors don't own their characters – Samikshaa is an exception; h er feistiness when she shoos away her college mate, in one of the scenes set in a women's college, thinking that a Roadside Romeo has sent her a message stands as the highlight for me.

This is a film that's supposed to be entirely built on music and melancholy. There's a bit of the latter here and there; however, there's nothing fantastical about Arjun Janya's music. None of lyricist Kaviraj's lines enters the boundaries set by Uma Devi's mesmerizing metaphor, " Thaabangale Roobangalaai, Padudhe, Thodudhe (Yearnings Take Shape And Touch Me)," or the genius of these precious words, " Iravingu Theevaai, Namai Chooluthae; Vidiyalum Irulaai Varuthe (The Night, Like An Island, Is Circling Us; Even The Break Of Dawn Seems Like Darkness).

Maybe if 99 were an original film, Arjun's lackluster tunes could have earned an above-average tag, but when there's a bar to reach, this can't be the output. And, for an actor who gained popularity by playing various versions of Devdas (in portions of Gaalipata and Mugulu Nage , too), this could have been child's play if Gubbi had allowed Ganesh to channelize his own energy instead of making him ape Vijay Sethupathi. Even after a decade, the climax of Mungaru  Male leaves a lump in my throat and a hole in my heart, but 99's ending didn't move me. I sat there analyzing the leads' vacant goodbyes, and not for a moment did I raise my hand to wipe my absent tears.

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‘V/H/S/99’ Review: This Horror Anthology Sequel Is Light on Scares, Heavy on Vibes

Christian zilko.

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You don’t have to be a jaded Hollywood cynic to understand why the “V/H/S” franchise isn’t going anywhere. As any studio executive worth their salt would be quick to point out, a recognizable horror brand built around deliberately cheap production value with enough elasticity to accommodate new trends is a terrible thing to waste. That, combined with a direct-to-streaming release strategy that frees it from box office expectations, gives the long-running horror anthology series little incentive to improve.

You’re gonna get a new “V/H/S” movie just about every Halloween until the end of time, and you’re gonna like it. Then again, there are worse fates in life.

While “V/H/S/99” is a far cry from the original, it still manages to be far more fun than it has any right to be. By connecting its horror vignettes with trippy stop-motion sketches instead of a unifying plot device, it crafts a viewing experience that essentially amounts to an Adult Swim programming block for horror fans. Which is not a terrible thing to be! The five segments are very hit-or-miss (an extremely generous count would say that three of them might scare you), but even the misses provide enough ’90s nostalgia to make for mildly entertaining late night viewing.

Such is the case with “Shredding,” Maggie Levin’s punk rock-influenced short that gets things started. It tells the story of three scene kids who remain obsessed with Bitch Cat, an old punk act that took on deity-like status after being trampled to death at an underground show. Hoping to build a similar level of street cred for their band, they venture into the cavern where the fatal show took place. Needless to say, it ends up being an ill-advised choice. “Shredding” is probably the film’s weakest segment from a horror perspective, but the fake documentary about Bitch Cat should entertain both those who miss watching music videos on MTV and those who wish they were born early enough to do so.

Next up is “Suicide Bid,” Johannes Roberts’ tale of Greek life gone wrong. Lily (Ally Ioannides) is a college freshman who desperately wants to join one of the top sororities on campus. In fact, she’s so determined to join this particular group of mean girls that she submits a “suicide bid” by refusing to apply to any other sorority. If she gets rejected, she can kiss her social life goodbye. She ends up being accepted on one condition: she has to spend a night buried in a coffin before she can join. The plot is so simple that offering any more information would constitute a spoiler, but you’ll walk away thinking that those anti-hazing activists might have a point.

If “Suicide Bid” finds horror in the peer pressure that young women face, “Gawkers” does the same thing from a male perspective. The Tyler MacIntyre-directed short follows a young computer whiz who ignores his better judgement by helping his brother install hidden cameras to spy on the girl next door. Though he quickly regrets his decision to aid the Peeping Tom operation, it ends up being too late. The boys may have just been hoping to see a bit of nudity, but they end up being exposed to horrors beyond their wildest nightmares

And of course, you couldn’t make a “V/H/S” film set in 1999 without some kind of homage to the Y2K fiasco. That’s where “To Hell and Back” comes in. The short film from Vanessa and Joseph Winter begins with some occult-loving conspiracy theorists rounding up volunteers to offer their bodies as “vessels” for a powerful new deity who was planning to come to Earth at the start of the new millenium. Naturally, it ends in Hell. While the practical effects are excellent in every segment, this one earns particularly high marks for its gory demons.

Those four segments are relatively equal in terms of quality, and each viewer’s ranking will be skewed by personal preferences. But the undeniable highlight of the film is “Ozzy’s Dungeon.” Directed by the Grammy-winning record producer known as Flying Lotus, the segment begins with a strange game show that features contestants racing through an obstacle course modeled after the human digestive system. But after an injury occurs on set, the contestant’s family sets their sights on revenge. They kidnap the sleazy host (played brilliantly by Steven Ogg), and the story devolves into a fucked up basement torture sequence featuring a bubbling bottle of acid.

“Ozzy’s Dungeon” is good enough to justify the existence of the entire film, and should be held up as a model of everything a “V/H/S” segment should aspire to be. Unapologetically weird, legitimately scary, and perfectly self-contained. The fake production fully commits to its absurd premise and meticulously recreates the feel of ’90s Nickelodeon shows, creating something as captivating as the best Adult Swim parody sketches. And when it’s time to get bloody, Flying Lotus doesn’t hold back.

It also serves as a reminder of what remains the franchise’s biggest selling point: giving new horror filmmakers a platform to get weird and take risks. Occasionally you’re going to discover a bold new talent, which seems like reason enough for horror fans to keep streaming these things.

“V/H/S/99” starts streaming on Shudder on Thursday, October 20. 

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99 Review: Nostalgia rekindled in this faithful remake of 96

Rating: ( 3.5 / 5).

The beauty of screenplay, storytelling, performance and direction all came together in the Tamil movie, 96 . It is no wonder then that Preetham Gubbi has stayed true to the original in this largely faithful remake.

Cast : Ganesh, Bhavana, Shamikshaa, Hemanth, Ravi Shankar Gowda Director : Preetham Gubbi

The original story by C Prem Kumar was a standout. The biggest challenge Preetham faced was not just replicating it but also casting the right actors. In this regard, he has not erred as Ganesh and Bhavana prove they were cut out for this romantic story.

The film revolves around Ramachandra Thirthahalli aka Ram (Ganesh), a freelance photographer. After a visit to his high school, his '99 batch plans a reunion. During the get together, he meets his school sweetheart, Janaki aka Jaanu (Bhavana). While both were in love during their school days, they never expressed their feelings to each other and ultimately, circumstances tore them apart.

The rest of the story goes back and forth, from school and college days to the present, showcasing their love and encounters, marriage to others, and their longing for each other. The magic of screenplay is crucial for such a subject, and Preetham Gubbi succeeds in captivating the audience in this conversational romantic drama. 

He also recreates the freshness of the original with elan. A relatable story of long lost love,  99  is elevated by the music by Arjun Janya. All the songs -- Heege Doora, Navilugari, Aniurthide, Nee Gnyapaka -- are soulful and are neatly woven into the story. It sets the right mood, and is captured beautifully by cinematographer Santhosh Rai Pathaje.

Ganesh is the perfect lead and stands out with his expressions and emotions. The script demands the actor get the right feel of longing for his beloved, and Ganesh delivers exactly this. Sagacity, innocence, courage, hesitation, craving -- all of these are blended in the right proportion in his acting. Adding a physical transformation on top of these is proof of the actor’s exemplary dedication.

Bhavana, who shares an equal amount of screen space, matches Ganesh’s performance in every way. Her expressions of love and pain, and the way she portrays a married woman rekindling her lost love are all well crafted.

School days and happy memories are mostly brought through Samikshaa and Hemanth, who play Bhavana and Ganesh's younger versions. Watching them is akin to taking a nostalgic trip to our own good old days. The episodes with the relationship calculator (Flames), the ink mark, preserving memories with dried flower kept between pages -- all take you back in time. Ravi Shankar Gowda, P D Satish and Jyothi Rai, who are part of this relatively small cast, bind the knots between the lead characters.  

99 is a beautiful story of the pangs of a long lost love, and it's one that's made for both the young and the old.

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“V/H/S/99,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before a Shudder drop next month, is a vicious, angry movie. Perhaps it’s merely coincidental, but it feels intentional in the manner in which these found footage short films all seem to feature people, well, “f**king around and finding out.” Some have suggested that the film should have been called “V/H/S/Y2K” but I think it’s not for a reason. This is not about the launch of a new millennium—it’s about the end of an old one, a slammed door on irresponsible idiots, mean sorority girls, manipulative TV personalities, and more. As an overall film, I found it more inconsistent than the stronger reboot “ V/H/S/94 ” as a few of the segments here just don’t work, but I admired the angry yell that this film resembles as a whole. I’m still in the camp that hopes they make a new one of these every year.

The latest “ V/H/S ” opens with its worst segment—never a good thing for something trying to reach an audience on a streaming service like Shudder, because they may jump off to something better quickly. Maggie Levin (“Into the Dark: My Valentine”) directs “Shredding,” which documents in nauseating shaky cam style a ‘90s group of troublemakers—think the pop-punk bands of the day with “Jackass” aspirations—who decide to break into an abandoned venue where a band named Bitch Cat was trampled to death a few years ago. One can guess how that goes. It’s a cluttered, inconsistent, merely loud short that exists on the bottom tier of the “V/H/S” segments over the years. It has nothing to say even as it’s screaming.

Things improve greatly with “Suicide Bid,” helmed by Johannes Roberts (“The Strangers: Prey at Night”). This one follows a sorority wannabe named Lily (Ally Ioannides) as she applies to only one Greek organization on her new campus, and it’s populated by just about the worst people in the world. They tell Lily that she has to survive a night buried in a coffin, relaying the legend of a girl who did this before and disappeared, taken off to Hell by a demon. The first half of “Suicide Bid” is a little silly, but I really like the creature design in the second half as Roberts and his team have crafted a practical demon that’s pretty legitimately terrifying.

Flying Lotus takes over for the centerpiece, which will appeal to fans of the artist (and his previous work “ Kuso ”) enough to make it the favorite of this project. “Ozzy’s Dungeon” is the name of one of those abrasive kid game shows like “Double Dare” but with a twisted, violent edge. When a girl named Donna (Amelia Ann) is injured on the show, her mother ( Sonya Eddy ) kidnaps the host (an excellent Steven Ogg ) and forces him to run a brutal gauntlet himself. Something about the pacing in this one is off to me as the gimmick fades before the short ends, but those who like their horror particularly grotesque should be entertained.

Tyler MacIntyre (“Tragedy Girls”) helms the modest but forgettable “The Gawkers,” which takes the concept of suburban perverts to extremes—again, almost all of these shorts feature someone who messed with the wrong person. In this case, it’s a bunch of sexually overcharged teens in an average cul-de-sac who lose their mind over the beauty of a new neighbor ( Emily Sweet ). They keep amplifying their voyeurism to the point that they literally install spyware and discover, well, she’s not your average girl next door. This segment is fine but it lacks the energy of the best “V/H/S” chapters.

My favorite is probably “To Hell and Back,” from Vanessa & Joseph Winter , who directed the SXSW hit “ Deadstream ,” which lands in theaters soon. The manic, Raimi-esque energy of that project is on display here in this tale of two filmmakers ( Archelaus Crisanto & Joseph Winter himself) who decide to document a demon-summoning rite on New Year’s Eve and end up going the other way instead. In other words, instead of a demon coming to our world, these two mopes go to Hell. “A found footage movie set in Hell” is too clever a pitch to deny and the Winters have a blast in Satan’s realm, fueled by a fun performance from Melanie Stone as a tour guide of sorts through the insanity they find there.

“Suicide Bid” and “To Hell and Back” alone make “V/H/S/99” worth seeing for anyone who’s a big enough horror fan to subscribe to Shudder. In the end, these films are perfect for a streaming service, bite-sized jolts of genre entertainment that aren’t ever long enough to be truly annoying, even when they’re not working. And while I think they could be more refined, I admire the go-for-broke DIY nature of these shorts and their quirky charms. Even when they’re this pissed off. 

This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16th. “V/H/S/99” drops on Shudder on October 20 th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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'V/H/S/99' Review: The Found-Footage Anthology Climbs to New Horror Heights

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The first V/H/S was released in 2012 as an exciting new horror experiment. While horror is not strange to anthologies, the idea of giving talented writers and directors free rein to explore their passion for found footage and VHS culture is nothing short of brilliant. Even so, the first V/H/S was uneven at best, working more as a showcase of weird ideas than as a collection of gripping stories. The problem became more evident with 2013’s V/H/S/2 and 2014’s V/H/S: Viral , each making the franchise's problems more apparent. Fortunately, producer Bloody Disgusting took a step back and decided to revamp the franchise with 2021’s V/H/S/94 , by far the best movie in the series. Or at least it was because V/H/S/99 seems to have finally perfected the formula.

Like in V/H/S/94 , all the segments of V/H/S/99 happen in the same year, which helps to create some connective tissue between wildly different horror stories. In V/H/S/99 ’s case, that means going back right before the new millennium, when skateboarding was still a widespread phenomenon, everyone was afraid of the millennium bug causing the apocalypse, and all the young people were hoping to launch the next CKY series.

More than casual references to an era long gone or background Easter eggs, the cultural landmarks of 1999 are at the center of most segments of V/H/S/99 . That’s why the movie opens with Maggie Levin ’s “Shredding” following a rock band in an age when punk rock was still playing on the radio. And Flying Lotus ’ "Ozzy's Dungeon" conjures a twisted and disgusting horror tale inspired by Legends of the Hidden Temple , giving a new gruesome reason for the show’s cancelation. Each director of V/H/S/99 did their homework, elevating V/H/S/99 from an anthology of random horror stories to a love letter to a specific year.

RELATED: ‘Deadstream’ Review: Found Footage Horror Pushes Boundaries of the Genre with Frights & Fun

V/H/S/99 ’s thematic cohesion also speaks directly to the target audience of the franchise. While younger generations can still enjoy the creepy stories of every V/H/S installment, people who didn’t grow up with a VHS player cannot feel the same rush when they see the visual noise of cassette tapes being reproduced so perfectly. So, making each new V/H/S movie about a specific year when the cassette tapes still ruled the home movie market gives the audience more nostalgic hooks through which they can relive days long gone.

The most significant improvement of V/H/S/99 compared to the previous movies is the absence of an umbrella story. The first four V/H/S films had a major storyline that tried to give some supernatural origin for each of the horror stories featured in the movie. While the effort was commendable, the umbrella storyline was always the worst aspect of any V/H/S , breaking the flow of the experience without adding anything relevant. In V/H/S/99 , however, we only get stop-motion animated shorts made by a character from Tyler MacIntyre’s “The Gawkers,” which is unrelated to other segments. Every V/H/S movie is just a collection of independent stories, and by owning this, V/H/S/99 has a clear advantage ahead of the previous films. Besides that, each animated short serves as a fun intermission that’s just there to give us a laugh before the next creepy story, allowing the viewer to breathe instead of asking him to remember every development of a fragmented umbrella storyline.

Of course, V/H/S/99 remains a horror anthology, which means we are bound to watch a few segments that are better than others. Johannes Roberts ’ “Suicide Bid,” for example, delivers one of the most unnerving segments in the entire franchise by exploring the horrors of being buried alive. Vanessa & Joseph Winter , however, take the crown of the most entertaining segment with “To Hell And Back,” which shouldn’t be a surprise, as the couple already brought us Deadstream this year, a fantastic feature-length addition to the history of found footage horror.

It is worth noting, though, that even if some segments shine brighter than the whole, every story in V/H/S/99 has some deliciously twisted surprise for horror fans, and they are all well worth your time. The biggest star of the show is the creature design. The monsters introduced in each segment are nightmare-inducing, and both V/H/S ’ Siren and V/H/S/94 ’s Raatma will have to face some new competitors for the position of best creature in the franchise.

V/H/S/99 still echoes some of the issues most anthologies face, as the rhythm of the movie depends on the pacing of each story. And at a 108 minutes runtime, V/H/S/99 might test the patience of some viewers. Still, this is the best the franchise ever gave us, and we can’t wait to see what new horror V/H/S/85 will bring us next year.

V/H/S 99 debuts on Shudder on October 20. Check out the movie’s trailer below:

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