Bollywood dances down the track

The seriousness of these sporty movies can be gauged from the fact that the lead actress in Chak De India — Vidya Malvade — went through an intensive two-month hockey training stint, while an English Premier League footballer has been drafted to teach John and Bipasha some slick footwork. No, he isn’t the Manchester United No. 7, but a former player.

All this is a far cry from the days of Jeetendra’s hammed badminton show in Humjoli and the missing MCC coaching manual on the sets of yesteryear’s cric-flicks Awwal Number and All-rounder. Avid film-watchers have noticed the transition that is parallel to Aamir Khan’s metamorphosis from Sunny in Awwal Number to Bhuvan in Lagaan.

Pritish Nandy, whose company is producing Meerabhai Not Out, talks about the new relationship between the audience and film-makers in this season of sporting movies. “Earlier, movies used to be formula-based, which followed traditional needs and requirements of a viewer. But that has totally changed now. Today, there is a new language, a new relationship between viewers and cinema,” says Nandy.

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Somnath Sen, who is visiting faculty at FTII, Pune, agrees too. “Not just sports, the portrayal of everything has evolved. It has become more mature and realistic. You can’t fool viewers anymore,” he says.

The reasons for this emerging trend of making realistic sporty movies are multiple. The high-selling value of sports that provide emotionally-charged content, plus Bollywood’s new-found penchant of experimenting with new subjects has seen the cameras being focused on the sporting arenas.

Sen points to the fact that sport is a metaphor of life. “Sport builds character and shows team spirit. The genre works well with India’s psyche as our narrative technique is romantic. We like to show good winning over evil. Actually, it is about triumph of our shortcomings. And this can be easily portrayed through sports,” says Sen, whose first film was Leela.

If one brings sportspersons into this debate, one realises they aren’t quite impressed. Former cricketer Kirti Azad isn’t happy with the way these films are made. “A lot of these movies are not realistic. But Iqbal was. It showed the struggle of an aspiring player, sports politics, a player’s relationship with the game vis-a-via his family. Like in the film, players from villages are actually coming up these days. But beside Iqbal, no other movie could really project reality,” says Azad.

And there are also those like the national rugby player and seasoned actor Rahul Bose who feel that they are still waiting for a perfect sports film. “India is yet to crack the art of making a good sports film. Even worldwide it’s not a popular genre. For any film, sports or otherwise, to be successful, it has to have a very well-written script. And then performances have to be good. What message a film seeks to send out is also very important,” says Bose.

Cricket host and actor Mandira Bedi, who is acting in the just-to-be-released movie Meerabhai Not Out , points to the old Bollywood lament of good scripts. “A good film always depends on how a nice storyline and a good script is being executed. I think the recent trend is being set off by the success of Lagaan and Iqbal. But for every Lagaan or Iqbal, there are three other flops. So you can’t say sports films work,” she quips.

Box office success is a complex issue, but, at least, the present day sporty movies have ensured one thing. One doesn’t need to close one’s eyes and cringe when Shah Rukh Khan picks up a hockey stick.