25th June 1983 is etched in the heart and mind of every Indian alive - it was the day of reckoning for Indian cricket, and I don't think that I shall be much wrong in claiming that this achievement turned the game into a cult in India. Written off by one and all as underdogs who had never won a World Cup cricket match except having beaten East Africa in one of the matches in the previous two versions, no one had any expectations from India. But the victory and the subsequent photos emerging from Lords with Kapil Dev receiving the much coveted trophy and holding it high with the team, gave a new dimension and pillar to the national pride. The game still belonged to gentlemen those days, and the exuberance of the achievement was a muted, dignified and graceful celebration, without the chest beating and physically expressive stuff we have gotten used to seeing now.
So when director Kabir Khan announced 83, the expectations from the movie soared. 83 is therefore saddled, whether Khan likes it or not, a billion different objectives, views, opinions, desires and elements of national pride that varies widely. For some, it's the players, and for others it would be the team, spirit, character, grit, emotions, and the list is endless. The story has a foregone conclusion and hence Kabir Khan was entrusted to give the victory a dimension that's perhaps hitherto unknown to our generation and beyond. The good news is that he succeeds partially with it for the audience that lived the occasion, but scores hugely for Gen Y, the millennials and Gen Z, to whom 83 is a story of pride rising from the ashes, it's Phoenix all the way. We shall be contented with your swashbuckling presentation of the subject, Kabir Khan.
But critically speaking, 83 is far from Kabir Khan's legacy of films, and I cannot help comparing it to Shimit Amin's "Chak De India". Of course, the latter was a fictional story and Amin had the whole canvas to paint on, whilst 83 perhaps tied Khan's hands to a great extent with reality where creativity is concerned. Hard as he may have tried, it's very difficult to take Ranveer Singh out of Ranveer Singh and Kapil Dev has a lot of the actor infused into his character. The rest of the team is a whole lot of talented actors, but Khan didn't have too much meat for them. I thought the emotional journey of Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Sandeep Patil, Ravi Shastri, Sandhu, Valson and others also deserved a place, but then one can perhaps argue that 83 in that case would have become a miniseries and not a film. I agree. The music isn't inspiring and I didn't bring back any of the songs. Cricket wasn't technically great - too much focus on the ground banter, clichéd shot making techniques and stock clips of fielding (read players slumping on the ground failing to stop boundaries) make the game uninspiring.
But what I brought back home is what Sandhu said after his engagement had broken off by his fiancee due to his small home and paltry earnings - he compared himself to engineers and doctors and felt inferior. That was 83! Forty years later, tge present Indian cricket players can roll on the floor laughing at that economic plight. Oh cricket! How you've turned things on the head!
