Dangal – Wrestling On My Mind : A Quick Review

Anari Talkies, Friends, Movie, Reviews

I am not an avid Aamir Khan fan who always leaves everything aside and rush to watch the first day first show of his one and only movie that gets released in a particular year. But yes I do admit that he has got some phenomenal skill of method acting  by virtue of which he forces the “Mango People” to wait for his movie to hit the theater. It’s like the facebook meme – “You might love me, you might hate me – But trust me, you can’t ignore me” .

Dangal – Another super blockbuster which has already got the entry pass to the 100 crore club within the 3 days of official “Production implementation” and in process of outshining a movie with almost similar theme – ‘Sultan’. With the earnings posted on Sunday, ‘Dangal’  has become the second-highest single day grosser in India EVER!!

So what is the USP of ‘Dangal’ that’s keeping the flyer high from the very first day? Is it only because of Aamir Khan? Perhaps no – and in the next few lines, I would share my views as to why ‘Dangal’ is not an ‘One man’ show…

1st scene – camera focuses on Aamir’s face, one of his colleagues gets involved with him to fight. Within a minute he makes mincemeat of his colleague. When his colleague says , “Aaj state level champion ko haray tu ne, Aamir replied back, “Afsos mat kar .National level champion se hara hai tu ne.” Here is Aamir khan for you as ‘Mahavir Singh Phogat’ in Dangal.

Mahavir, a national level champion from Haryana, dreams of winning a gold medal at international level. but to his own dismay, he failed to achieve it, like any other parents he and his wife (Sakshi Tanwar) are eager for birth of a son who can get into wrestling(Dangal) and fulfill Mahavir’s dream. They ended up having four daughters and his dreams were fading away. One day their two elder daughters, Geeta and Babita, beat up few neighbourhood guys. Initially embarrassed, Mahavir found a tiny ray of hope and decided to train them for wrestling despite of his wife’s denial. His arrogance of turning his daughters into wrestlers makes everyone taunting to his family but he believes that his daughters are no less than the boys. He believed, “Ek waqt me , main uska guru ho sakta hun ya uska baap.” With Mahavir’s tough and strict training Geeta starts winning the local wresting tournaments against boys and becomes the national champion.

Geeta enters the National Sports Academy Patiala for her International career and due to his new coach she was forced to unlearn everything that Mahavir taught her. She starts losing matches on national level and a don’t-care attitude builds up in her character. In a scene, Geeta confronts her father. To her, Mahavir’s technique is outdated and only effective in state level games. Geeta defeats dad Mahavir in the face-off, telling him ‘kuch toh farak hove‘ in his technique and that of her coach. While Babita decides to stick to the base and decides to carry on her training under her father and also entered the National Sports Academy. The conflicts ,Mahavir’s comeback in Patiala for Geeta’s failure change the 2nd half of the film.

I will take a pause coz otherwise I would end-up telling the entire story and you my reader would lose interest of watching the scintillating excitement of the fight that Geeta has shown on screen, the adrenaline rush and passion with which Mahavir supported her in each of the matches she took part into. There is no 360 degree flip of the storyline and you just see what your back of the mind tells you about the next scene to take place – No tweak, no whodunit suspense. The stunts performed by the actors are the backbone of this film. It makes the film a notch higher. These stunts are choreographed so well that they look real. Stupendous background score and appropriate use of songs by Pritam at places where absolutely needed has beautifully complemented the charm of the act.

The films biggest strengths are the lady actors (Fatima sana Shaikh, Zaira Wasim, Sanya Malhotra, Suhani bhatnagar). You will wonder how beautifully they are trained for this film. Their performances are stupendous. Aparashakti Khurana and Ritwik sahore as their cousins are marvellous too.

And then there is Aamir khan, this is not his film, this is not a film where he got maximum screen presence but still he has put a mark. He also gets you misty-eyed when he realises his daughters are struggling during training. His excellence proves again that why he is one of the most celebrated actors of our country.

The script of Dangal is a masterstroke. Despite of having a very serious issue of gender inequalities, father-daughter relationship this film will make you smile and cry tears of joy.

There are classic films, there are great films and there is ‘Dangal’. Dangal does not need to be a great Aamir khan film. Its a crowd-pleaser. You feel proud when you a get chance to watch this kind of film. Audience will stand up when the national anthem will play in the film  but even if it doesn’t play the national anthem everyone should stand up for the performances given by Geeta and Babita.

Thank you Nitesh Tiwari , Thank you Aamir khan and everyone who have given their everything for the film. You will be remembered for a long long time.

 

 

Rating: 4 / 5

3-5stars-copy

Reviewer ~ Souparna Dutta. A 2011 I.T. passed out from MIT Bishnupur, now getting paid by Cognizant. Interested in music, films and photography. He wants to do something that makes his soul happy. You can wish him on 30th April ;). For more details, meet him. Or you can spam him at [email protected].

Raw Cover Image: i.ytimg.com

Cover Image Design: Anari Minds