83 movie review: The best Indian sports drama

83

Hindi (Theatres)

Director: Kabir Khan

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Pankaj Tripathi, Jiva

Rating: 4/5

Accounting for the history of sports in Indian cinema, and the empty seats at a nearby theatre, I didn’t give ’83' a chance. In fact, I dismissed it with condescension even when the opportunity to write its review came about.

Grudgingly, I took it on expecting tacky imagery of one of India’s greatest moments, assuming the mockery of fabled characters of that epic World Cup victory at Lord’s, waiting on cringy flaws in the depiction of a well-chronicled story, harbouring apprehension for it’s not easy to distil the collective emotions of a country desperate for hope into a medium as hasty as cinema…

I will gladly swallow my pride to say that director Kabir Khan has created what will undoubtedly go down as one of the best sport-based movies India has ever seen. He did it right when most believed he would do it wrong.

The stakes were high and money was poured in for the story truly writes itself, and a star cast, including Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Pankaj Tripathi (of Sacred Games fame), would presumably mean replenished coffers.

But Indian movie makers rarely find the right mix of accuracy, technical nuance, sap, songs, action and drama to sell sport at theatres. They spend too much time catering to what the Indian demographic presumably needs instead of focusing on putting out a piece of art that stands the test of time.

Frankly, '83 is guilty of falling prey to forceful tear-jerkers and tacky background scores, but it happens so sporadically, it’s easily pardonable.

To Kabir’s credit, what began as an exercise in finding faults, turned into genuine entertainment fairly soon. Kabir’s projection takes a broader understanding of the social unrest in India and our standing on foreign shores at the time and weaves it in with a dash of humour and just the right pinch of sentiment.

And then there’s the cricket. They could have gone horribly wrong with the quality of content for nearly everyone in India is an expert on the sport. Every wrong bowling action, every inaccurate stance or shot was going to be berated. I too was waiting for them to make these mistakes. They didn’t come as readily as presumed.

Every character played their role to potential. In fact, Ranveer, playing the then captain Kapil Dev, was the only one who looked marginally out of place. Perhaps, Ranveer, used to playing exuberant characters, held himself back a little too much in an attempt to recreate Dev’s epithelial intensity. He didn’t do full justice to Kapil’s bowling action either, but that’s me nitpicking, or is it?

As for Tripathi, who played the role of team manager PR Man Singh, the movie rarely escaped his frame for he, not Kapil, felt like the totem. Tripathi’s oft vulnerable disposition can’t be far from what Man Singh himself had to endure before the champagne-without-supper night in the aftermath of the triumph.

With time, the happenings of June 25, 1983, have been relegated to a series of events: the one where India beat West Indies in the final while defending 183 runs, the World Cup India had won before 2011.

Few remember and fewer still care to find out what that day at the Lord’s meant to us as a nation. This depiction will rekindle the memory of those from that era and remind those from this generation that cricket stands for more than wins, losses, statistics cheerleaders and WAGs - always has and always will.

On that note, as Wisden Cricket Monthly’s editor David Frith swallowed a piece of paper on which he had written off India, I too will chow down my presumptions for these 161 minutes were worth every moment, almost.