REVIEW: Harman's Victory

On learning about his son's exclusion from the Indian team, Anupam Kher suffers a paralytic stroke. Later when the boy steers his team to victory in a thrilling comeback, he miraculously recovers - for one last time. This is just one of the many melodramatic moments this so-called sports flick boasts of.

Promising cricketer Vijay Shekhawat (Harman Baweja, in a daring attempt to appropriate what has been Bachchan's screen alias for decades) makes it to the Indian team after years of struggle. Following a smashing debut, he is flooded with contracts and endorsements deals. Expectedly, our young man loses both focus and form. After being dropped by selectors and snubbed by advertisers, Vijay undergoes an attitudinal change. And what do you know? Braving a serious head injury during a match, he leads India to a near-impossible win. Interestingly, Hurman's rise and fall and rise again is quite similar to his ex-girl friend's award-winning track in Fashion. But minus the emotional impact.

Dull innings:

Come to think of it, expectations from a sports flick are not that high. It's usually about the underdog's journey from obscurity and failure to being recognised, appreciated and feted. And it all comes together in a gripping, emotional finale. Victory follows the same premise. But what is appalling is that it fails to deliver the basics. In a film about cricket, there is not enough cricket to watch. None of the innings played on screen manage to evoke the staple edge-of-the seat thrills of a sports flick. Even a Holland vs. Canada ODI promises more action than what is shown here.

Clichéd melodrama:

The film is saddled with clichéd melodrama that makes you cringe. I can't even recall the number of stereotypical dialogues and scenes this film crams in. It's a film where an out of form cricketer touches the coach's feet before a crunch game. It's a film in which celebrity managers are referred to as dalals and endorsement money is called 'gandi kamai'. It's a film where everyone screams out of their lungs regardless of the situation.

Zero research:

Clearly not enough research has gone into the depiction of an actual dressing room, team selection processes, fitness regime details, coaching methods and the sportsman - celebrity manager equation. Instead this film looks like an cut-paste of cricket gossip from prime time news bulletins. It seems someone out there wanted to tap into the hype and the sensationalism around the most popular sport in the country. There is little in this film to prove the filmmakers' love for the game. If anything, the filmmakers seem to be awestruck by the stardom, the hysteria and the fanaticism around cricket. And that's all they want to capture. If there's big monies in the game, why not make some with a film on the same, eh?

Making of Harman-Amrita's Victory