My temptation to compare the movie to ‘Miracle’ vanished 15 mins into the movie when the team building started. A nice touch of national integration without jingoism, fantastic cinematography, stellar performance by each of the actors makes the movie a potent mix. Its only other movie after ‘Jo jeeta wohi sikandar’, to have nail biting suspense in a ‘underdog’ sport.
Shimit Amin has deftly done the scenes focussed more on people and spirit than the actual game itself. So, you live with the character ignoring the possible conspicuous technical errors done by actors in a skilled sport like hockey.
I loved the haryanvi and Punjabi characters, so true to life and hilarious. The bringing together of disparate people from a suave chandigarhi to uncouth jharkandi, and breaking their differences and moulding them together is second only to Lagaan. The need for the women to assert was put very delicately brought out without regular ‘nari shakti’ trites.
I dont know why unlike Miracle the film-makers have not credited the inspiration behind the story. The movie is based on Ranjan Negi who was the hockey goalkeeper of the Indian team during the Asian Games 1982. During the Asian games, India faced a defeat with the score of 1-7 against Pakistan. This was a humiliating experience for Negi. Later in his life, Negi coached the National Women’s hockey team and the team went on to win Gold at the Manchester Commonwealth games.
The pace is right, no item numbers, little of the yash’s overdoses, it is a must see!!
