‘83’ - If only each player had a distinct personality like in ‘Chak De India’

A film fundamentally requires suspension of disbelief. It succeeds if it is able to achieve that without you realising it. That is where the first half of ‘83’ fails miserably.

It feels like an audiovisual representation of events from a Wikipedia page. The only point the first half wants to keep repeating is how the world was underrating the Indian cricket team. And why that keeps irking you is because you haven’t grown to care about the team. There is no soul, no context, no backstories. Just a bunch of young men bonded with puerile humour. Imagine ‘Lagaan’ without the British oppression or Kachra or Lakha or Aamir’s gamble for the entire village.

On the cricketing front too, there is not much insight. I was also particularly minding the mimicry of Kapil Dev and I put that down not to Ranveer Singh (who performs exceedingly well yet again) but the choice made by Kabir Khan.

But if you can endure the first half, the second half rewards you. Because for the first time, the film displays some soul, some angst, some depth and eventually the Indian cricket-viewer in you comes to the fore.

One thing I’ve come to realise is that - The box office may reward some terrible films but when it comes to the so-called good films, the one the box office rewards are the one that are truly good, all the rest are glass-houses painted by critics.

On that note, may this year bring better, deeper films. Happy (and healthy) New Year to us all.