Because the fundamental idea of underdog-to-champion stories is a trope, the largest difficulty facing them is to reinvent the biggest trope of them all. And Kabir Khan has been telling stories like that with success; the most recent one was in 1983, when India made history by winning the World Cup.
Khan’s filmography nicely complements the inspirational but little-known tale of Murlikant Petkar, the first Indian to win a gold medal in paralympic swimming (Heidelberg, 1972). The lost-in-the-mists-of-time hero motif, which has also been receiving a lot of airtime lately, is also fitting with this.
The story of Petkar’s journey to win the gold medal in Heidelberg, which he had his sights set on since he was a young boy in Sangli, Maharashtra, is one of miracles: “Chandu Champion” tells us that he overcame hardships like extreme poverty, ridicule from friends and family, and horrific injuries sustained in the “65 war” that left him paralyzed from the waist down, to achieve his lifelong dream.
In his portrayal of Murlikant Petkar, Kartik Aaryan gives it his all. This challenging position traces the storyline of the film from its subject’s childhood as a small-framed “pehelwan” in his hamlet (“akhada”) to his military service as a jawan, where he learns to be a boxer and almost wins a major tournament, to his eventual triumph over his disability. And because it’s that kind of movie, even with its frequent explicit, highlighted scenes, Aaryan manages to make you root for his character.
Once upon a time, Salman Khan would occasionally include the more intimate, lovely moments between the wide, expressive brushstrokes that typified his earlier work. The most recent instance of this occurred in the 2015 film “Bajrangi Bhaijan,” which is still regarded as Khan’s finest work to date. Despite its attention-grabbing flourishes, I also thought ’83 was a great movie because of Ranveer Singh’s incredible performance and the way that victory was returned to us, changing not just how the cricket world saw India but also providing us with our all-time greats.
The way Chandu Champion is portrayed immediately illustrates how difficult it is to dramatize a life and make it appealing to the general public. It is attractive, ambitious, and devoted, but there are so many similarities to the character that it becomes difficult to make it unique.
The best part of Shah Rukh Kapoor’s “Farzi,” Bhuvan Arora, returns as Fauji Garnail Singh, doing more of the same. Bollywood will truly mature if it does away with this BFF character, as it would then require the hero to perform heavy lifting on his or her own.
When Tiger Ali, Vijay Raaz’s boxing coach, shows up, the movie starts to get up. Raaz is saved from being an irritating coach that both Bollywood and Hollywood adore by his easygoing demeanor. Some of the best scenes in the movie have him and Aaryan, joined by Arora, in and around the ring.
See more – Ajay Devgn leaves Maidaan to do it alone India Stodgy sports drama suited for the INDIA bloc era starring Jodo Yatra
In this all-male film, the presence of a gorgeous TV reporter (Borse) for a brief period of time is somewhat of a relief; the two female roles are shared by Chandu’s emotional mother and a boisterous nurse. You want to see more of Sonali Kulkarni after her brief appearance as a journalist.
This is the kind of movie that, although giving us a likable, inspirational hero we’ve never heard of, falls short of what it could have been because everything you see is reinforced by dialogue and overt humor. The beats are predictable.
