Cover Story/Sports Biopics: Sporty Connect through Cinema

 
“He said instead of pouring milk over Shivalinga save “20 & fill stomach of poors. Boycotting Dangal can save “300 so y not? #LetsBoycottDangal, said one of the tweets. And if you are on social media, this was not an exception. Still, Dangal, the Aamir Khan starrer & produced movie has earned “176.9 crore in Bharat and will soon cross “100-crore mark internationally. What is the secret of this contradictory success? Perhaps, there is a new and encouraging trend in the Hindi film industry of biopics based on sports personalities. Their humble roots, invigorating struggle and unprecedented success in respective sports provide inspiration to millions in Bharat. If all this is interwoven with a masala and solid foundation of ‘nationalistic’ approach, then it connects with the masses. The trend set by Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is nothing but a reflection of changing times and transforming Bharat, which people like Aamir Khan needs to understand

Abhishek Dubey
The biggest of the battles in the life is fought in the battlefield of mind. And, in sports the mental game is half the of any victory. One can train all they want, and run through all single play, but one still won’t come out with a win, if the
individual or the team are not mentally prepared. There comes a time in nation’s growth, when its population aspires to leap frog to the next level. And its time like these that sports and sportspersons inspire, motivate and energise the entire populance. For, sporting legends rise from humble origin to scale the summit. Their scripts are based on the narrative with sweat, grit, determination, sacrifice and struggle as its intrinsic core. Like in the stiffest tests in life, fraction of seconds differentiates the victor from the vanquished. And most importantly, the vanquished bounce back and emerges as the champion next time. In India, time has come. And, this explains the yearning of the nation- whose 65% of the population comprise of those below the age of 35 years, latching on to the bollywood biopics based on the narrative of sports. From ‘Chak de! India’ to ‘Dangal’ this strong undercurrent is discernable.

The year was 2007. The venue was ‘Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, in South Africa. The giant screen read, “India is the inagural T20 World Cup Champion’. This was unimaginable even 10 days back. For team India were reluctant participants in the tournament. Three of the greatest icons of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly had skipped the tournament. And the team was led by what the traditional cricketing brains considered a rank rookie from the remotest possible traditionally non-cricketing center called Ranchi. The nucleus from the team followed this unexpected trend. Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, Kothamangalam in Kerala and Kodagu in Karnataka were definitely not in the traditional
cricketing map of the country. But heroes emerging from these towns did the unthinkable. The resonance of this win could be felt an year after, when the Indian Premier League was born. The initial unique selling point of the league was reel life heroes owning the teams comprising of the real life heroes.”

One of the biggest bollywood stars of the time owning a much fancied team told me in one of the interviews, “We are reel life heroes. They are the real life heroes. In their case, live real time action speaks. They don’t have any chance of retake. Theirs is the story of the truimph, in both, victory and defeat and in sporting arena and actual battle-field of life. We try to capture these sensibilities and encapsulate these emotions in our acting skills canvas. For our kids, the sweat and their blood, their sacrifice and their dedication, will be a more genuine iconic stuff. We as an actor will be mere extrapolation of this”. From then till date, Chak de! India, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Pan Singh Tomar, Mary Kom, M.S Dhoni: The Untold Story and now Dangal, the list of the real sporting icons captured in the reel of bollywood, is getting longer. More of the same are there in the pipeline, the most awaited ones being—‘Sachin—a billion dreams’. What is that which is making sports based films like ‘Dangal’ a roaring success in the box-office? What is that which makes Aamir Khan, who was trolled by the twitterati for his totally unwanted and uncalled for comments on intolerance, latched on by the cinemagoers when he takes sports as the theme?
Firstly, as journalist Naushad Ali puts it forth, “The people could relate themselves to the theme. They are witness to the actual stories of Mary Kom, MS Dhoni and Phogat sisters. And the fact that they fought adversities to emerge trimphant in life inspires them. There was a point of time in Mary Kom’s life, when she had thought of taking her life. If not selected for the Zimbabwe tour with India A team, Dhoni would have been an ordinary ticket collector in one of the railway stations of eastern India. If Phogat sisters father would have followed a conventional trend in his village and not challenged the societal norms, they would have been relegated to the background doing hackneyed social chores. Parents loves to take their kids to movie halls to get inspired by the real life stories.” Secondly, the sports based movies trend may be the emerging one in our country, but it is part of the larger global trend. Sports after all don’t exist in isolation, it’s the reflection of the society we live in. In the words of avid hollywood film watcher Rajesh Jha, Invictus (2009) starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon highlighted South African Rugby team’s efforts in clinching the 1995 World Cup in the post apartheid era. Ali (2001) starring Will Smith on the life of Mohammad Ali, Moneyball (2011) starring Brad Pitt on the life of Billy Beane and Rush (2013) capturing the rivalry of James Hunt and Niki Lauda, too carried a strong thematic contemporary message. All the films including Dangal, carries the present societal message, which our aspirational populations are latching on to leapfrog to the another level. They give them the hope that the existing trends and handicaps  could be erased to re-write the success stories script”.  

Thirdly, sports based films gives subtle man management and team building lessons. They emphasise on the fact that pro-active approach and not a reactive approach pays dividend in life. Most importantly, they come up with the critical attributes in the  decision making process—like
maintaining cool till the end and  focus on the process and not the end result alone. Most importantly sports based stories always exhudes positivity. As sports psychologist Dr Saranjeet Singh aptly put this forth, “Sports stories teaches us the most invaluable lessons in life that loosing necessarily is not always bad. Infact, it’s can turn out to be a stepping stone to emerge as victor  in future”.

And lastly, science fiction based films and sports based film stories has been an inseparable trend world wide. As Dr Saranjeet Singh says, “Science fiction triggers our imagination to think beyond what is existing to the world full of possibilities and unknown. Human civilisation has trudged a long and arduous journey from the stone age to the information age. And these science based fictions push us to crave for more. From here, we do fancy our chances of owning mobile phones without any battery, a pilotless car in which we can sit at the back and concentrate on our lap top, a vehicle which can run on the road and fly in the sky at the same time to beat the city traffic, toilets which could wash itself without wasting water and foods which could be genetically edited. The limit is unlimited”. If the science fiction based stories comprise of the hardware, the sports based films forms the software. They touch our emotional chord and empowers even the most disadvantaged to add wings to their desires. As the emerging trend from ‘Chak de! India’ to ‘Dangal’ shows, the latter trend has arrived in the young nation with the ancient roots. The former trend will arrive too, as and when our society gains in confidence of its former self and makes scientific temper the core of its philosophy, as was the case when it was the world leader. Between these two main thematic characters of science and sports based films in the actual dangal too, there is a broader lessons for Aamir Khan. The pulse of the nation and its people needs to be judged accurately.
(The writer is senior Sports Journalist)