Film Sachin A Billion Dreams offers a heavy dose of the magnificent
’90s, an era in which the BCCI became the superpower of world cricket.
When the hero has been the collective voice and integrity of
India’s cricketing history, then he’s a tough subject to make a movie on.
Obviously, James Erskine puts Sachin on a pedestal and tells the story with an
unnatural amount of respect.
It’s a treat to get a look into Sachin’s childhood. And it’s
also a fan-shriek moment to see footage of him in his personal space, looped to
Dire Straits and Bappi Lahiri with his wife Anjali, his children—Arjun and
Sara, his family and friends. The fact that Sachin is the sutradhar (narrator) who
walks the viewer through his victories and injuries is an additional bonus.
In India, where cricket is a religion and Sachin Ramesh
Tendulkar is God, this movie aims to offer a sneak peek in the life of the
‘Little Master’ and seeks to show the man behind the legend.
The movie starts off with Sachin’s childhood and we get to
know what a curly-haired little devil Tendulkar was as a kid. The story is
peppered with anecdotes of his mischievousness as told by Sachin’s family
members. The first half of the movie is nothing less than a ‘coming of age’
story as we follow Sachin’s life and learn how he transformed from a infamous
mischief-monger to a dedicated sportsman with the help of his brother Ajit
Tendulkar and his coach Ramakant Achrekar. The movie also sheds light on how he
met his wife Anjali and how they ended up getting married and some of the
anecdotes are bound to make you laugh. Through Anjali, we also get to know how
Sachin is as a husband and a father and how his performance on the pitch tends
to affect his personal life too. Sachin also takes us on a guided tour of the
Indian cricket team and we get to know how the team functions within the limits
of a dressing room, the friendship between the players and the effect a win or
loss has on the entire team.
The movie has been shot fairly well and the background music
by A.R. Rahman, is one of the highlights of the movie as it elevates the
narrative to another level altogether. Every time the ‘Sachin... Sachin’ chant echoes
through the cinema-hall, you feel goosebumps on your skin-such is the impact of
the docu-drama.
James Erskine deserves praise for his stiff direction and
for making the movie engaging enough to arrest the attention of every spectator
in the cinema-hall. The movie is not just about Sachin, but about Indian
cricket as a whole, with emphasis on the other members of the team and on the
people behind Sachin, who made him what he is today.
Erskine’s movie also has included some of Sachin’s memorable
matches and his tryst with captaincy and the reason behind his reluctance to
wear the captain’s cap, which should shed some light on why Tendulkar never wanted
the post. We also get hints of the dark world of match-fixing and how it
affected the entire team. But what generally works for the movie is that it is
not just about Sachin, the cricketer, but also Sachin as a person, as a father,
as a husband and as a friend.
The biography’s narrative continues with commentators,
critics and colleagues Dhoni, Kohli, Ganguly, Sehwag and Harbhajan are (sigh!)
only praising the Little Master.
Overall, Sachin-A Billion Dreams is a praiseworthy film to
watch once for Sachin’s fan and sports lovers.
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