The words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” aptly represent Hundred, a Hotstar Specials series which is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Story
Netra Patil (Rinku Rajguru), who does a normal government job, dreams big of making it to Switzerland with an adorable Shah Rukh look-alike in tow. But the stark reality stares at her in the form of an uncertain future throwing Netra’s life out of gear.
ACP Saumya Shukla (Lara Dutta) is a frustrated cop who badly needs a break to prove herself but is unable not do it due to a dodging boss DCP Anshuman (Parmeet Sethi) who is hell bent on thwarting all her efforts.
Instead of getting relegated to watchdog, Saumya wants to salvage herself from humiliation and frustration. Even Saumya’s better half and her counterpart in Narcotics, DCP Pravin (Sudhanshu Pandey), also becomes a pain in her neck, compelling her to think bigger for a change.
Performances
Mind-blowing performances from both Lara Dutta and Rinku Rajguru are the main attractions of this rollicking entertainer. Dutta is at her best as a super cop whose never say die attitude is the hallmark of her character.
Rajguru, who caught the attention of everyone with the blockbuster Sairat, makes her presence in Hundred felt with yet another elegant performance laced with grace and poise. She has the ability to express all the feelings, be it anger, fear, despair, anguish, courage, naughtiness or love through her eyes and face with great ease which is her biggest asset.
In addition, Rajeev Siddhartha as Shantanu, Makarand Deshpande as ‘Satta’ uncle and Suyash Zunjurke as Aniket, the boyfriend of Netra chip in with reasonably good performances to lend more credibility to the narration.
Positives
Any story or a narration when expressed on screen should keep the viewer engaged all through. Then the success follows automatically. The creator-directors Ruchi Narain, Ashutosh Shah, Taher Shabbir and Abhishek Dubey do this successfully, resulting in total entertainment without a single dull moment.
The photography by Volker Shellbach, editing by Tushar Parekh and background score by The Salvage Audio Collective are perfect and suffice the narration on the screen to the hilt.
Negatives
The sidetrack involving Saumya and Maddy (Karan Wahi) is not fully explored. This needs to be justified at least in the next season of Hundred.
Lara Dutta should have talked and expressed straight to the camera to vent the inner feelings of Saumya in place of normal voiceover which was used throughout the series to infuse more humour.
Worth it?
Hundred is quite different with some unexpected twists encircling the life and dreams of an innocent girl shown in an absorbing style with many entertaining features. So binge watch Hundred for some riotous entertainment.
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