The members of the 1983 India World Cup squad are probably household names to everyone who grew up in India, but I'll confess I only knew Kapil Dev (played by Ranveer Singh) and Sunil Gavaskar (played by Tahir Raj Bhasin). So the first sign that this is a great film is that I found myself completely fascinated by all the players I had never heard of before and looked forward to seeing what role they would play in leading India to victory. Krishnamachari Srikkanth (played by Jiiva), who I guess was really famous but I knew nothing about, might have been my favorite of the pack. I'm biased because he is South Indian and the movie has him periodically muttering in Tamil, which is one of my top favorite things in any Hindi movie. There's also a very entertaining interlude with him trying to get access to some homemade dosas in London. But the performances from all the other actors were just as superb and nuanced, picking up on all the strengths and weaknesses of these different players, the struggles they were facing on and off the field, and how that all coalesced into creating this incredible team.
Most Bollywood movies are just about the lead actor(s). But 83 is a true ensemble piece, reflecting how that 1983 World Cup was a true team effort. Ranveer Singh has the difficult job of portraying Kapil Dev, which could descend into caricature very easily (especially with those fake teeth), but he walks that tightrope delicately, speaking all that terrible English, but conveying that beating Punjabi heart and grit that propelled him to lead his team to dizzying heights. We see how his team both mocked and loved him, and how he rallied them around this seemingly impossible task, fighting all the naysayers at home and abroad. And it is wonderful to watch the interplay between him and the team's manager, PR Man Singh (played perfectly by Pankaj Tripathi), a man who wants this team to succeed, but is also thinking about the finances and that it would be cheaper to just buy plane tickets for them to come home before the semi-finals.
I thought that this movie would focus more on the battle between India and the West Indies and potentially get racist about the WI team. But wow, the WI team probably got just as much adulation from the filmmakers as the Indians. The Indian players were starstruck by the likes of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards (fun fact: Neena Gupta has a small role in this movie as Kapil Dev's mother - she famously had a relationship with Viv Richards in the 80s, so any time they showed her on screen watching the WI matches, I had a little chuckle about what might be going through her head). While the matches between the two sides were brutal and hard-fought, it's clear that all anyone cared about was playing a damn good game of cricket. So in the end, like all great Bollywood cinema, the theme becomes that England are the real villains. You'll get plenty of scenes with supercilious British men talking down to the Indians, and eventually having to (literally) eat their words. When I spoke to a Barbadian colleague of mine about this movie, he remembered watching this match in Barbados, and how his friends would try to emulate the Indian players on the cricket pitch. They were disappointed that West Indies didn't win, but they were glad that at least they didn't lose to England. It's nice to know that even in 2021, we can still be united by our hatred for colonialism.
Which brings me to the cricket. Oh the cricket. There's so much of it! And it's all so amazing! This movie is nearly three hours long; almost all of that consists of these men playing a series of cricket matches, and it is GLORIOUS. There's also a lot of fabulous cricket commentary from Farokh Engineer (played by the always wonderful Boman Irani), which adds to the hype of every match. The screenplay and editing is top-notch, focusing on just the right overs to generate maximum drama and show us the interplay between all the behind-the-scenes conversations we have seen with these players and how that is reflecting in their ability to play the game. The script by Kabir Khan (who also directed), Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan, and Vasan Bala, should be revered for its ability to find all the ways to turn a cricket match into an emotional whirlwind. And of course, you can't discount the score from Julius Packiam. While I didn't pay particular attention to any of the Pritam-composed songs that played throughout this film, the background score is exactly the kind of heart-pumping thing you need in a sports movie and it ensured I was on the edge of my seat for every boundary and every wicket.
The movie occasionally intersperses real-life photos and videos from the matches, and the actors' resemblances to the men they are portraying can sometimes be uncanny from certain angles (like when Kapil is bowling), though most of the time you will just smile at the obvious dissimilarities. Still, there's an obvious devotion to authenticity and researching all the events surrounding this tournament that is such a treat. 83 is a wonderful tribute to a very uplifting story and will ensure that future generations continue to respect and admire this 1983 World Cup squad. It makes you love the players and it makes you love the game, and that's why it's an instant classic. It is also incredibly funny and warm, striking just the right tone throughout and never descending into too much sentiment or too much nationalistic fervor. There is plenty of commentary throughout about what this game meant to India (Indira Gandhi makes an appearance for a bit, using this match to quell some riots, as you do) but at the end of the day, eleven men showed up at Lord's and played their damn hearts out. What a joy to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment