Iqbal is a movie that celebrates the unyielding human spirit which is in us all. A deaf and dumb boy, Iqbal has the preposterous notion that he can become a bowler on the Indian cricket team if he tries hard enough. He comes from a materially poor family, but one so rich in integrity that it evokes our cheers. Iqbal’s father believes that what you have must have been earned by you, and that you must not accept handouts, no matter how willingly given. This spirit has, by example, been passed on to Iqbal, his sister and his mother; but unlike the father who no longer dreams of attaining the ’’impossible’’ because of setbacks over the years to his hopes as a farmer, the others retain the dream of one day achieving what they can barely dare to imagine. This dream is of seeing Iqbal win his way into the Indian cricket team.
Iqbal tends to the family buffaloes, who he has playfully named after famous Indian cricketers. A small dirt field is where he hones his skills as a fast bowler, witnessed only by the buffaloes as proxies for cricketers he reveres. He temporarily gets the help of a famous coach who is holding a cricket camp near his village, but is then dropped by this man, despite his obvious talent, because he is perceived as a ’’financial and political’’ liability. Iqbal frantically looks for a substitute coach, and discovers that the village drunk was once a famous bowler. With his persistence, Iqbal weans this man off the bottle, enough for him to train him. What he learns is how to contain his emotions, and then to bowl such that the batsman has no clue as to what is coming at him. This coach also manages to get Iqbal on one of the teams competing for the Ranji trophy, even though it is the worst team of all. However, thanks to Iqbal’s skillful bowling, the team reaches the finals. In a climactic ending where Iqbal is buffeted between loyalty to his family in the face of threats to their financial future, and fighting for his dream, he dares to choose to fight for victory, and this he does gloriously. As the movie draws to a close, it leaves one with the unmistakable feeling that all’s well with the world, and that success and happiness are every man’s destiny. Three cheers for a movie that has gone where none have gone before!.