The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan

Right from its announcement, it has created a sense of excitement, as an India vs Pakistan match is not just a cricketing war-it is, in turn, a battle of pent-up emotions.

Another Netflix documentary is here, focusing largely on India's tour of Pakistan in 2004 and bit of Pakistan's tour of India in 1999. It explores the atmosphere of those times-the political scenario, the Cold War-like tensions, and behind-the-scenes moments from the cricketing world, where arch-enemies on the field turn out to be friends off it.

It is surely a nostalgic trip for 90s kids, making you feel like you are reliving those moments all over again. Featuring interviews with Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Shoaib Akhtar, and Inzamam-ul-Haq in prominent screen time, the documentary also includes insights from Wasim Akram, R. Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, and others. The political turmoil between these two nations can be felt through the words of these sporting legends.

The match footage surely evokes emotions and hits hard. Creatively, what works best is that the series is not biased toward one country, giving equal importance to both sides. However, this also dilutes the emotional depth that could have been achieved if it had been told from a single country's perspective. One would have expected more cricketing legends to feature in the series, especially Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, and Yuvraj Singh, but unfortunately, they chose not to be part of it. Additionally, while the documentary primarily focuses on the 2004 tour, it could have explored more.

Watch it if you love cricket. Watch it if you want to understand this historic rivalry. Watch it to experience the emotions behind the game. And lastly, watch it because it is three-episode documentary that won't take much of your time.

#PranuReviews #TheGreatestRivalryIndiaVsPakistan #TheGreatestRivalryIndiaVsPakistanReview.

While I enjoyed watching this 3 part show, this felt....very incomplete and wasn't what I expected it to be. The show is primarily from Sehwag and Shoaib Akthar's POV and the roles they played in the India's tour of Pakistan.

The cricket rivalry is more than the one tour and while there's some political context provided, it's not enough to do justice to the title of the doc. I understand that given the vast (cricketing) history between both these nations, it's not easy to make a documentary but just call it "2004 India tour of Pakistan" instead of making it sound like it's about the cricketing history. Plus, it's misleading this is mainly about the ICT making history in bilateral competition. If that's what you're going for, go all out telling the story from India's POV but they didn't do that either.

It's always fun to listen to people share stories and context you may not have known behind real life events, that was the only fun part about the show. But as much as I liked listening to everybody speak, it wasn't what was sold to me and it was too less. I mean, how do you make a documentary about India vs Pakistan cricket without the T20 final?

Watch it anyway, but go in without expectations and go in to listen to a handful of players talk about the context behind ONE series and you'll probably not be disappointed.

I was so excited to watch this but truely a dissapointed documentary. I felt as if only sehwag and shoaib akhtar led all India pakistan matches. Clearly missed out on some real good matches. Where was sachin, Kumble, V prasad, Amir sohail, afridi, saeed anwar... those were true legends of those era... A big big opportunity lost...on what could have been a series that could have brought our childhood memories back but i felt it didnt showcase relevant matches. Wish someone else would have directed this with some better juiciness that used to exist during the india pakistan matches. Was good in bits and pieces.

Many players are even shown very less or totally ignored. World Cup winners like Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Kohli are totally ignored. Even legends like Sachin, Yuvi, Harbhajan, Zaheer khan, Ajit Agarkar, Azhruddin, Gautam Gambhir, Navjot Sidhu, Ajay Jadeja, Vengasarkar, Surya K Yadav and apne Ravi Shastri ji . And many more from even Pak too.

Big names like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma were totally missed. That what I call a incomplete picture. If you can consider R. Ashwin and Dhawan then why not these legends.

Kumble tool most wickets against Pak followed by J srinath. Players like Shoaib Malik and Suresh Raina are also not mentioned.

I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary. I personally would have liked to have seen more legendary cricketers featured but I think they did pretty well to get some great cricketers on both sides to share their stories. It can be unrealistic to get every single cricketing great to give their piece my dear viewers. It really is the greatest rivalry in sport and it was great to watch. I liked the historic footage and also showing older matches. Shoaib was a treat to watch and get his views on the rivalry. I was engrossed from episode 1 and couldn't put it down. Really well made, interesting, and shows how much great talent exists for both sides and both want to rebuild a stronger relationship to make way for this great sport to be played more often.