Iqbal
***
Iqbal is the story of a million years. Arjuna in the Mahabharata was taught that if he really must achieve something he wants, he must narrow his focus down to that one thing only and exclude everything else from his perspective.
So it’s the same old story, Iqbal wants to play cricket for India – like millions of other youngsters who wake and sleep, live and die by the game. But our boy is slightly different, he is mute and deaf, which I believe was a smart move on the part of the filmmaker because anything that Iqbal may actually have said would have only taken away from the connect between him and the audience. This move, in effect works even better as it allows scope for the character of his sister, Khatija (Shweta Prasad) who is his medium of communication with the external world. You open your heart to her from the very beginning and she walks in, sits herself down, makes herself comfortable and shows you why she deserves that place.
Shweta Prasad is LIFE personified. She is a wonder kid in a wonderful ensemble of a cast, which has Naseeruddin Shah as a has-been, Girish Karnad as a king maker, Yateen Karyekar as the father whose blood boils at the mention of the word Cricket and Pratiksha Lonkar as the mother who rather deftly walks the tightrope of balancing the dreams of her son and the reality of her husband.
So then, Iqbal is the story of this boy, his dreams and the how the world conspires to help him achieve it. When you walk into the movie hall, you know you will walk out only after Iqbal has worn the Indian Blues, because it is a story about the human spirit and we don’t like to see it fail. It’s like the triumph of good over evil, the reverse shall not happen, and we lead our lives believing it, because after all, it is hope that holds the world together. So, you’re not waiting to find that out. Then, when you see Naseeruddin Shah dwindle past Iqbal’s house, drunk and tattered, you know he will eventually end up as Iqbal’s guru. You do not wait in suspense for anything. You only want to know how enjoyable the journey to Iqbal’s wearing the Blue uniform is going to be, and that is where Nagesh Kukunoor does not entirely disappoint.
There are a few places in the film where you believe Nagesh Kukunoor could have done better with some substantiating, but he mulishly keeps away from any plot, sub-plot or even a minor point that has nothing to do with Iqbal. So he doesn’t delve into Naseeruddin Shah’s past with Girish Karnad, he does not delve into the problems that Iqbal’s father is grappling with (just to jerk some tears may I add), he does not delve too much into the strategies and methodologies of the game, he does not even delve into too much of the dirty politics that Girish Karnad casually mentions has become the root of this game today. He excludes all of these issues, and its quite metaphorical with the idea of the film too – it’s how Iqbal sees his dreams and nothing else at all.
So you want to excuse the nitty-gritty’s like flimsy-seeming selection procedures, preposterous celebrity management signing bonuses and a couple of things like that … you don’t care enough to harp on these things. You want to enjoy Iqbal’s success because it is genuine, it is pure and it is means redemption to every single viewer, it is how we want to see ourselves, it is the victory of the human spirit, it is the way of life.
The music and background score add a fine touch to the film. Ashayen especially stays with you long after the movie. KK soaring vocals and a tight score by Salim Suleiman manage to carry more than a couple of sequences in the film.
Performances are impeccable – to say the least. Shreyas Talpade is more than impressive. Scenes where he expresses pure joy, where he hugs his kid sister or coach, when he does his ‘I can fly’ victory dance, or when he shows real genuine desire to learn and understand what the children of the lesser gods are trying to convey to him, he is marvelous. Shweta Prasad brings life to the film. It’s a word that I have repetitively used for her – and she only deserves more accolades if not as much. Naseeruddin Shah, Yateen Karyekar and Girish Karnad, are veterans – although I would have liked to see Karnad perform a slightly better written role. When you see such brilliant actors after such long gaps in films, you just want to see more of them and then, a little more of them because you don’t know when you will see them again. Naseeruddin Shah is in his element. He enjoys his acting, and you enjoy watching him enjoy his acting. It’s slightly twisted, but it’s how it is. I would have actually liked to see Nagesh do a small bit himself, as he usually does, but no complaints there.
Iqbal makes you believe in dreams, in life and more than anything else, in yourself! It’s not a brilliant film, it’s a good film with the most brilliant emotion – that of the winner!
- Kartic Sitaraman
11th October, 2005.