Awwal Number

This movie was made at a time when cricket was gaining commercial momentum in India. Disputes inside the dressing room were a daily affair. It indirectly also encompassed issues of the day be it Indian Military involvement in Sri Lanka, be it a global cabal of shady figures involved in political scandals. Call it coincidence, barely 2 years later ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE, which formed the core of this movie's summary and his portrait can be seen in the Minister's office.

There are some who're asking how come Dev Anand, an ex-IPS in the film, got appointed as President of BCCI. Well, KPS Gill was head of the FIH, Dr. Ali Bacher was chairperson of the South African Cricket Board. And Dev Anand did his part fairly well.

Aditya Pancholi was rightly cast as the reigning but spoilt brash batting star who'll definitely remind people of Virat Kohli. Aamir Khan was good as a rookie who becomes a national hero overnight, reminding of Wasim Akram albeit with the bat.

Most importantly, it's fictional yet seems very real. BCCI is called out by its name, so are teams and legends like Sir Don Bradman and Sunil Gavaskar, unlike other recent sporting melodramas which take too much liberty and create a parallel universe altogether.

Songs were out of place, unlike classic Dev Anand movies from the 50s, 60s and 70s. But the plot was comprehensive enough.

A one time watch.

Cricket based films have been taken up in a big way now but in late 80's and early 90's hardly films were made on them AWWAL NUMBER(1990) was one of the first The film showcases on the game cricket, the rivalry but it's also a DEV ANAND film He has directed the film and his worst habit is to hog the limelight So here initially the rivalry between Aditya and Aamir is well handled and also the cricket spirit is well built but later-on most scenes feature Dev Anand and how he plans to solve the conspiracy The film has several good moments but only flaw being too much on Dev Saab.etc The film builds up well towards the climax and the climax is good Direction by DEV ANAND is good in parts Music is okay Aamir looks young and does a good job, though he was raw initially those days Aditya too is good in his part though could be better in several parts Dev Anand repeats his usual style and does an okay job Ekta(Mohinish's wife now)annoys Khulbushan Kharbanda is good, Macmohan and rest are okay

Not exactly one of my favorites considering this was one of the zillions of movies Dev Anand has directed. But what was interesting about it was it being designed around cricket. Not many movies are produced in Bollywood which tackle this genre, Lagaan being an amazingly sole exception considering it made it all the way to the Academy awards. Awwal Number was probably one of the first few movies that pioneered the theme of sports based jealousy, passion, love and the spirit. Aamir still getting hold of his acting prowess with an equally new Aditya Panscholi made for an interesting movie. Throw in an evergreen Dev sa'ab making sure things ran smoothly and you have "Awwal Number". The songs were pretty forgettable but what stayed was the memory of a movie based on Cricket.

5 points out of 10 for being different in the theme.