Movie Review - Sachin: A Billion Dreams by Suhel Johar
Sachin:
A Billion Dreams Is Inspiring,
Intriguing And Impressive!
Making such a film on such a personality is a
difficult decision in itself. So, the
director James put Sachin on the chair and tells the story with complete
reverence and insight. The Master Blaster himself reveals certain aspects of
his life that were never heard of before. The film captures the minutest
aspects of Sachin’s life in fantastic detail. The duration of the film is two
hours and 19 minutes.
The film resumes with the birth of Sachin and Anjali
Tendulkar’s son, Arjun. We see Sachin working hard on his son to make him a
hardened cricketer. The Tendulkar family believes that Sachin’s father has returned
in a new incarnation, in Arjun.
Sachin might not be an actor but engages you with
his story-telling and it’s impossible to be unmoved with his disappointments
and achievements. You can see the clip of giving the retirement speech in 2013.
Sachin: A Billion Dreams will make you feel patriotic in places and it is one
of those films that make you leave the theaters with a smile.
But unfortunately most of the controversies related
to Sachin have been rather inadvertently forgotten or ignored. This film
describes only Sachin's glory. While Sachin addresses his captaincy stint and
also the shame of spot fixing scandal, he has nothing to say about playing
under captains like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and M. S Dhoni. Even the Greg
Chapell phase is slightly rushed in the film. Also as a fan you may want to know
what he went through like during his lean patches or use his political clout in
seeking favors for friends and partners. It would have been also interesting if
it was explained how he evaded paying taxes on his Audi, etc. But none of these
topics have been touched upon or even get mentioned in passing.
In this illustrated interpretation of Sachin's life,
you get a chance to see commentators, fans of cricket, cricketers, such as MS
Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh
praising the Lord of cricket. There are
of course others who speak about him in varying levels of reverence, too, but
one senses that they are all in a Tendulkar film; their respect is legitimate,
but also comes across as a first-hand reaction to the ingrained values of the
image this country worships.
With a run-time of two hours and 20 minutes, the
first half of the film is interesting and fast paced. It dramatically ends on a
sombre poetic note. The second half moves at a slower pace and fatigue sets in. Of course, James has chosen to make a
glaringly “official” documentary, primarily utilizing his proximity with
Tendulkar to construct a one-sided account of his legacy.
The script designed by director James and Sivakumar
Ananth seamlessly encapsulates Sachin’s life with archived footages from his
personal videos and cricket matches. Editor Avdhesh Mohla’s smooth transitions
and effective background score by A.R. Rahman help the narration of the film.
Visually, the film with the right blend of footages,
is engaging and the narrative arc by default is definitive with a set-up,
set-back and the finale – Sachin’s retirement speech after winning the 2011
World Cup. The euphoria of the brilliantly played matches is once again
relived, giving the plot-graph its required jagged edges.
On the whole, Sachin:
A Billion Dreams is a real treat for all Sachin Tendulkar fans, something
that they will cherish for a long time.
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