“Difficult, but not impossible” - I guess the statement is true to both Iqbal and Nagesh Kukunoor. The dearth of meaningful and inspiring movies is truly staring in our eyes now-a-days and Iqbal comes across as a drive through the country side with fresh breeze in an otherwise polluted traffic of Bollywood cinema.
I couldn’t help noticing parallels between Iqbal’s character and Nagesh Kukunoor. Both come from a different background with no godfathers. Both struggle for a place under the Sun and want to carve a niche for themselves and leave a mark. Both mean business and both succeed. Both deliver a knockout performance and tug our hearts in the process. We feel grateful for them being there and without our own knowledge we cheer for them!
Nagesh Kukunoor has traveled a long distance and with Iqbal, he truly has lived up to his promise of being a movie director with a heat and a message to deliver.
The performance of Shreyas Talpade and Naseeruddin Shah are stupendous. To steal someone’s phrase (for lack of a better one), Shreyas has delivered a superlative performance without delivering a single dialogue. Naseer is unquestionably a goliath in the Indian movie industry. I hate it when people try to compare performances of Amitabh Bachan in Black with Naseer’s in Iqbal. How can one compare a true master like Van Gogh with a commercial artist? Now, I don’t mean to be harsh with Amitabh; he is an entertainer in his own right, but to compare his performance with Naseer is nothing short of a blunder…. Shweta Prasad as Iqbal’s sister is simply adorable and the way she has held herself up to stalwarts like Naseer is astounding. Hope & pray she doesn’t fall prey to the glam-sham of Bollywood.
Some moments in the movie are really heart-wrenching like the one where Iqbal’s father burns his shoes, Iqbal furiously saving a burning sheet of paper to see “Difficult, but not impossible” in the heading, his first few steps in to the international match and Iqbal’s father admitting his folly of holding Iqbal responsible for all his failures & breaking down. Well, we did catch ourselves with lumps in our throats at many moments in the movie. The movie also underlines the importance of everyone needing someone other than oneself to believe in them.
The best thing about the movie is that the movie unlike “Black”, doesn’t latch or lean heavily on to either Iqbal’s challenges of being deaf & mute or to the disease of this country called cricket. The movie has underplayed both and succeeded in showcasing the struggle of a human being in his quest for attaining a goal.
The ugly underbelly of cricket is also shown very well, what with almost everyone associated with & administering the game involved in activities other than development of the game now-a-days. One is also reminded of Ekalavya’s episode in the Mahabharata and of Ekalavya’s plight of not being part of the privileged few that could learn from Dronacharya. The price Ekalavya had to pay was huge; this comes across as a temptation in the form of a bribe form the Drona of the movie, guruji (excellently played by Girish Karnad), which fortunately the character of Iqbal refuses to pay.
The good thing is, Nagesh hasn’t fallen trap to displaying useless emotions. Iqbal is a character that is both determined and is smart. He works on his plan, is uncompromising and works around the issues he faces – a good lesson for all of us that keep staring at a problem than working on a solution.
Finally, I would love to extend a true word of thanks to Subhash Ghai for supporting the cause of good cinema. I don’t know if it would be incorrect to draw a comparison of Ghai being a Mohit (Nasee’s role in the movie) to Nagesh? Well, thanks Nagesh for creating and thanks, Subhash Ghai for making this movie happen. I hope this inspires other producers & directors to make such movies to keep a balance between the entertainers and meaningful mainstream cinema. We need both kinds to have variety – what would one do if there is no one to paint our advertisement boards and we have only Vincent Van Goghs around or vice versa?