Sports based films suck ...
Bollywood will see the release of another film related to sports this week. Apparantly "Dil Bole Hadippa"(DBH) will see Rani Mukherjee(RM) being an ace cricketer who disguises as boy just so that she can participate/play in some cricket tournament.
I always seem to have one big issue with films based on sports. Esp. those in India. Sports films will obviously be incomplete withouth sporting action. So a cricket based film will have to have someone playing genuine cricket shots or bowling genuine/legal deliveries. A hockey film should have the protagonists playing hockey of the utmost skill and performance level. A soccer based film should show the actors playing amazingly good soccer. But the biggest problem is... THEY DON'T!!!
Well, they do show the actors playing the sport. But it can never look as good as we're used to seeing it. HOW ON EARTH CAN RANI MUKHERJEE EVER PLAY A STRAIGHT DRIVE AS GOOD AS WE'VE SEEN SACHIN TENDULKAR OR RAHUL DRAVID PLAY? These actors go on an film promotion spree claiming that they trained for six months (surprisingly everyone trains exactly 6 months, be in RM for cricket, the "chak de" girls for hockey....I wonder why bollywood is obsessed with "6 month training"?). Don't they ever realise that people spend their lifetime training in some sport and yet they cannot make it big?
The fault I think lies with the producer and the director. I don't think they are people who understand the sport to the highest level and therefore when they shoot they don't realise that the actual sporting action looks fairly amatuerish.
Some of them do put in a lot of effort and come reasonably close to not making a fool of themselves. "Chake De India" was a prime example. I'm sure anyone who has seen hockey would realize that the girls in that movie were no where close to look like pros (forget winning a World Cup). But it wasn't too bad either. Some of the scenes (maybe shot with professional hockey players) looked fairly commendable. And more so, the rest of the film were so good that the audience (probably) forgot about this.
Same goes with Lagaan. Sure, the cricket there was nowhere near as good as international cricket. But their story basically had the actors not knowing sport.. so they were learning the sport and were not born champions. Even without this, the quality of cricket there was fairly impressive (I loved the fact that the ball did not spin in the second over... and started spinning later when it became old).
People might argue that the film is about the story and not really the sporting action. Maybe... but then don't show me the junk!! If you're so skillful, make a movie about sport without showing the actual sport. Sure DBH might be more about how this girl is going all out to achieve her dream of playing cricket. But the sight of her holding a bat clumsily and hitting a (so called) straight six makes me cringe. Just look at the promo below. Looking at this... and thinking of the climax of the film... yes ... you guessed it right.. a cricket match.. tense situation... wickets falling every other ball... and suddenly our beloved (yuck!!) girl-turned-boy batsman (batswoman?) finds the form of his/her life and starts hitting fours and sixes at will... possibly hitting a six on the last ball to win the match...
WHY WOULD ANYONE LIKE IT? If she trained for six months... did no one tell her how to hold a bat. Or did she train herlself as a scorer or umpire and only realized it on the day of the shoot that she has to play a cricket shot ... not raise or stretch hands.
For all you know... after all this rant, I myself might like the film. But it can only be because of other, non-cricketing reasons.
I always seem to have one big issue with films based on sports. Esp. those in India. Sports films will obviously be incomplete withouth sporting action. So a cricket based film will have to have someone playing genuine cricket shots or bowling genuine/legal deliveries. A hockey film should have the protagonists playing hockey of the utmost skill and performance level. A soccer based film should show the actors playing amazingly good soccer. But the biggest problem is... THEY DON'T!!!
Well, they do show the actors playing the sport. But it can never look as good as we're used to seeing it. HOW ON EARTH CAN RANI MUKHERJEE EVER PLAY A STRAIGHT DRIVE AS GOOD AS WE'VE SEEN SACHIN TENDULKAR OR RAHUL DRAVID PLAY? These actors go on an film promotion spree claiming that they trained for six months (surprisingly everyone trains exactly 6 months, be in RM for cricket, the "chak de" girls for hockey....I wonder why bollywood is obsessed with "6 month training"?). Don't they ever realise that people spend their lifetime training in some sport and yet they cannot make it big?
The fault I think lies with the producer and the director. I don't think they are people who understand the sport to the highest level and therefore when they shoot they don't realise that the actual sporting action looks fairly amatuerish.
Some of them do put in a lot of effort and come reasonably close to not making a fool of themselves. "Chake De India" was a prime example. I'm sure anyone who has seen hockey would realize that the girls in that movie were no where close to look like pros (forget winning a World Cup). But it wasn't too bad either. Some of the scenes (maybe shot with professional hockey players) looked fairly commendable. And more so, the rest of the film were so good that the audience (probably) forgot about this.
Same goes with Lagaan. Sure, the cricket there was nowhere near as good as international cricket. But their story basically had the actors not knowing sport.. so they were learning the sport and were not born champions. Even without this, the quality of cricket there was fairly impressive (I loved the fact that the ball did not spin in the second over... and started spinning later when it became old).
People might argue that the film is about the story and not really the sporting action. Maybe... but then don't show me the junk!! If you're so skillful, make a movie about sport without showing the actual sport. Sure DBH might be more about how this girl is going all out to achieve her dream of playing cricket. But the sight of her holding a bat clumsily and hitting a (so called) straight six makes me cringe. Just look at the promo below. Looking at this... and thinking of the climax of the film... yes ... you guessed it right.. a cricket match.. tense situation... wickets falling every other ball... and suddenly our beloved (yuck!!) girl-turned-boy batsman (batswoman?) finds the form of his/her life and starts hitting fours and sixes at will... possibly hitting a six on the last ball to win the match...
WHY WOULD ANYONE LIKE IT? If she trained for six months... did no one tell her how to hold a bat. Or did she train herlself as a scorer or umpire and only realized it on the day of the shoot that she has to play a cricket shot ... not raise or stretch hands.
For all you know... after all this rant, I myself might like the film. But it can only be because of other, non-cricketing reasons.
Labels: Bollywood, cricket, movies, Rani Mukherjee, sports
posted by Shri at 11:38 AM
5 Comments:
shri, I think, its because you are a sports loving person(and i mean really into it big time), that you are being too sensitive about it. and its natural. but think about it this way. when a doctor sees any regular hindi movie, with a hospital scene..he/she would be disgusted by the state of events in some,dnt you think. And in that case, its about human lives/death. similarly, a movie based on law, lawyers could laugh to death. most of the police in hindi movies is shown corrupt, and many times shown helpless or sleazy...does that not irk the honest policemen in the country? its a MOVIE-an imagination+reality+creativity..its an entertainment medium, period! you cant expect filmmakers to come up with refreshing stories/backdrops without all this! films are aimed at general public, who might/might not know a straight drive from a pull..or whatever. Individuals with better knowledge will always see the flaws, but if you are in for serious cricket, go see a cricket match! everyone has a limited budget/time..they cant spend years learning a sport..rt? everyone does what their profession demands..cuz that is their aim in life :)
Well said Krati :-) There are time/budget constraints. Very few people are perfectionist.. and they are also blamed for thinking too much and taking too much time or being too realistic(e.g. actor Aamir Khan or movie Slumdog Millionaire)
Storyline (not the sport details) should be considered unless some movie maker claims to have a world class sporting action.
I'm not arguing that a sports based film c/should compete with a cricket match. Each has their own place. If Sachin Tendulkar stars in a cricket film tomorrow, the cricket shots would be nothing short of sensational. But the film would suck since it would fail on the acting front.
But my point is mainly against sports based films and not other professions. Hindi films seem to have done enough research on other professions. So films based on doctors, policemen or law seem to convince me. They're closer to reality.
So when a Munnabhai was taught the way of open the body of a patient ("hold the scalpel like a pencil")... I don't think doctors disagreed with it or when policeman are shown asking for a bribe... we all know/experience it or when one watched "Ab tak 56", we've read about these stories quite often. So they convince the audience (at least me).
However, sports based films are not that convincing. Maybe when enacting other professions, the appearance and the appropriate lingo is enough. For sports based films these along with correct physical (mannerisms?)presentation is required which is missing big time.
For most professions, filmstars get their costumes right, the lingo right ("Objection overruled" or "Objection sustained" :D). Sometimes they work harder and get things like the accent also correct (Priyanka Chopra's Marathi accent was fairly commendable in Kaminey). But they don't seem to get the sporting actions right. Be it hockey, football or cricket (have there been other sports based Hindi films?).
And again, some films do the right work and therefore do get it right. The best example is Iqbal. It was a movie on cricket and the cricket in it was good.
Regarding the limitations of budget/time, there are other people who did succeed in doing similar movies right? Did they have infinite money/time? Again, my reference point would be Iqbal. My hunch is that people involved with the film are not bothered ...which is kinda sad.
Aamir Khan might be blamed for anything, but when I watch his movies I have a good time (mostly... a glaring example here would be "Awwal Number" vs "Lagaan"... one sucked... the other rocked). I'm sure he has budget/time limitations too... but he does get things done and does them well.
Storyline is the most important thing undoubtedly, but for the story to convince me... the sporting action **HAS** to be right.
I agree with Shrinand, bolly actors don't seem the pro sportsman they shud look like in many bollywood movies.
And Krati is correct too, many actors suck while acting like doctors or policeman or whatever and tht too shud be unacceptable. But in a sport film, the sport is @ the center of the story so it HAS to come good else the movie 'll suck. For a film based on doctors, if the actor fails to bring out the technicalities of doctor, the film 'll doom too. e.g. in Armaan (2003), all central characters were docs and the actors played them nice.
If a film revolves round a sport and the actors cannot bring in technicalities, its gonna suck big. Use technology, dups, whtever - but when rani plays the straight dr, show us the bat really comes down straight, the follow thru has high left elbow if the ball is gonna race to the ropes.
In "15 park avenue", Shabana Azmi plays a physics professor and shes shown teaching quantum mechanics in a class, she was pin point perfect in technical terms. Dilip kumar had to play a sitar for 40 sec in "madhuban mein radhika nache re" and he learnt sitar so tht he cud play as a real pro sitarist wud do. It does make HUGE difference. But maybe technical finesse is not appreciated that much yet by majority, so many film makers 'll put more money in a actors dance costume and sets than making a sport short more real using technology. Seems we 'll have to put up with poorly made sports films for long !
Be it hockey, football or cricket (have there been other sports based Hindi films?).
I would put 'jo jeeta ...' too in this category :D ...biking is def a sport ...tho not that big in india ...
btw i like the points made by all of u ...and concur too ...
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