Funny title(hence the sad one for this review). Unexciting promos, specially the first one that launched with Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom. The main cons of this upcoming movie. Three major pro’s though: namely, the increasing appetite for unconventional qualitative theatre, past successful records of sports films, and most importantly, the crowd pull of SRK. Rest assured, that was the main reason the theatres were pouring full here, hockey or no hockey. The question was, would patriotism and SRK be a good enough combination to make a hit film, especially on the forgotten national sport?
My take is, if the movie is well made, well scripted and well acted, it could be about moon voyages and be a hit, hockey is still quite contemporary. Having said that, this is what the movie had to offer with palatibility:
*Plot:
Kabir Khan**(SRK). Top Centre forward, Captain and one of the best ever, who just as dramatically transforms into the most villainous traitor of his time. His crime? Flubbing a last penalty and having the gall to shake hands with a Pakistani opponent upon losing the game. Result? Castigation, religious attacks and obscurity lead him to having an unfinished career and an even more obscure life.
Fast forward 7 years. The womans National Hockey team, a team only on paper is faced with the prospect of no coach, with no one giving a darn about it anyway. Enter Kabir Khan, who wants to lead them to World Cup glory if he can survive them, and redeem his own honor in the process. Will he do so? Refer any standard sporting movie for the answer.
Cons:
Most critics will bring the hockey angle and the fact that the story is predictable. True but which sports movie isnt? Hollywood churns out cookie cutter sport films year in and year out, this is still India’s second or third true sports film, after maybe Jo Jeeta. because Lagaan and Iqbal were more on the personal problems of the protagonist than on the sport.
The main beef was that a lot of the characters werent fleshed out, specially the most hyped one of Vidya, who had a small family angle but in essence was in no way the lead actress of the movie. That goes to the forwards, the awesome Punjabi girl, and the main senior player. I guess the length also mattered but it wouldve been nice to give some other characters a bit more screen time and depth.
*Pros:
Honestly, who doesnt like an underdog story? Theyve always been successful and will be, simply because all of us love to see the underdog win. And for that to happen, the director has to make the audience root for the underdog, which **Shimit Amin does beautifully.
Secondly, a sports film needs authentic and good camerawork, as that brings the true thrill of the movie out, and cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee does well, although I wouldve preferred a few more overhead shots, however the feel and excitement is brought out well.
Another good aspect is the use of the background music and the use of the title song, which is probably the next anthem until the next series disaster or defeat(Hoo Haa India/Blue Billion anyone?), here it isnt used cornily and adds to the movie as does the background music by those wizards, Salim-Sulaiman.
The pacing and crispness, and more importantly, lack of melodrama and glycerine, be it humiliation defeat or victory.
Direction: Shimit Amin takes on an unusual theme, that of the complete sports film and runs well with it. Sure it isnt a masterpiece but he does really well by making a believable if formulaic sports movie, without making it corny and rosy, and most of all preventing anyone, even SRK from going over the top, though this is THE movie for Khan to ham, given that he has an authoritative role. But instead his crispness and quick direction style make the movie run along fast and doesnt let it drag too much. Overall, a great follow up to that classic "Ab Tak Chappan" and itll be interesting what different theme he’ll come up with next.
Performances: There isnt much scope for a lot of the players, but the ones who do brilliantly with their material are Tanya Abrol (Balbir Kaur), Chitrashi Rawat (Komal Chautala) and Shilpa Shukla (Bindiya Naik). Vidya Malvade gets a half baked role despite the pre-release hype and deserved a better role. The rest of the cast like Javed Khan, Anjan Srivastava and so on perform their parts well.
Shahrukh Khan: However the main pivot of the movie, who makes it eminently watchable is this man. He finally gets a director after a long time who does not allow him to go trademark and ham as only he can in such roles, and gets him to underplay and be authoritative as per the roles requirements. Kabir Khan has to portray inner frustration at failure and yet motivate this team so that they can fight for acceptance and equality as much as for the Cup, be it via anger, camaraderie sternness and pep talk, and SRK does this brilliantly, conveying each aspect of his personality aptly without the typical neck shaking melodrama. Its good to see him consciously do different roles as well as change his acting based on the role, along with his usual commercial roles. Proof of this changed performance is the end, firstly in his soliloquy, (talks like a proper coach and not a fluttery prof) and then the scene where he goes to his old neighborhood at the end, the reaction on his reception is calm yet shows all thats required from the scene. Great performance from him, he actually carries the whole movie and I hope to see these roles along with his conventional roles in the future, he is using his range now and thats always a relief.
Conclusively, despite a predictable story on an unpopular sport, it seems the SRK-patriotism magic will work, judging by the whistles on each goal by the audience towards the end, however its good to see that the success in this case(Constructive nationalism through sports) would be well deserved, rather than just going ga-ga over anything to do with patriotism. Definitely worth a watch, if for nothing then for the performance and direction.
Get back to me with your thoughts and let me know what you thought, would be great to hear your views.
till next time
have fun
faraz