That said, there are several unfortunate jokes about Babulal and Dattatraya's advanced ages rather than their behavior, as when Bachchan kicks a soccer ball and lustily skronks on a toy saxophone while wearing an unseemly ear-to-ear grin that makes him look, clad as he is in his wig and beard, like Rankin and Bass's Abominable Snowman. How are we supposed to take this guy or his life lessons seriously when he looks like that? 

There's no simple answer to that admittedly loaded question, mostly because Bachchan's character is hard to take seriously until just before the film's halfway mark. The turning point is a scene where Babulal takes one of his dad's challenges and has a credible breakthrough. At this point, Bachchan's character lets Kapoor take over, and "102 Not Out" becomes a relatively sober melodrama about how awful it is to be old and taken for granted. 

Babulal's estranged son Amol (Dharmendra Gohil) figures prominently in this hour-long stretch since he is conveniently—but sympathetically—blamed for neglecting his father, and therefore making Babulal feel unworthy of a good life. This is a very Bollywood mentality: Dattatraya, representing the older generation, knows best because he knows Babulal better than he knows himself, and therefore tries to teach his son how to not see himself as a mere reflection of his own ungrateful son's desires. There's even a psychodrama-style scene (complete with thunder, dim lighting, and declamatory recriminations) where Dattatraya lays out all the ways that Amol has neglected his father and his late mother. It's a bombastic sequence, but it works because Bachchan and Kapoor both deliver winningly hammy performances.

And at some point in this "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte"-like scene, you realize that Bachchan's wig has become matted down. Patches of his scalp peek out from under his wig's wispy strands, and his chic circular glasses come off more often. And at this point, Bachchan stops looking like an aging star in a Halloween costume and starts looking like a vulnerable older guy who, in the right light, can still seem handsome. "102 Not Out" won't win Bachchan any awards, but it proves that this aging figurehead still wears his natural charms lightly.

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