Victory

Unfortunately I'm not much of a cricket fan, and whatever knowledge I have of the game, how it's played, the rules and regulations and such, is thanks to Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan starring Aamir Khan, a movie which had the game explained in layman terms to a group of villagers assembling a rag-tag team to challenge their oppressive British occupiers with tax breaks on the line. Victory however is a sports theme movie through and through, adopting the very standard formula (which was also applied to Fashion) where it's focused on the protagonist's meteoric rise to stardom, an equally hard downfall, and ultimate redemption.

Harman Baweja's debut in Bollywood hasn't been rosy with the box-office disaster Love Story 2050 (which I've yet to watch), which was an expensive special effects laden science fiction movie involving some time travel. And I thought to a certain extent, Victory doesn't buy him much favours too because his Vijay Shikhawat at his introduction, gets passed off as a very arrogant whiner. Arrogant because of his given talent of being the complete cricket player and a powerful batsman, but a whiner as he constantly complains to his friends and family of rued chances. Not because he's a fault though, but because he's a small town boy who got overlooked by scouting talent due to corruption and crony-ism of the scouts.

But as luck would have it, the National Team goes to his hometown for practice sessions, and determined to get just one shot to impress (erm, he did whine first of course), he turns up and wows everyone with an impressive display against the Team India players, and with a professional match in which he shone in, becomes Team India's latest secret weapon against powerhouse countries like Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the likes.

Ajit Pal Mangat's story then follows the beaten path with plenty of films out there where the small town boy gets led astray and seduced by the bright lights in the big cities, affecting his play and sowing the seeds of his downfall naturally. Values like hard work, modesty and humility, no thanks to his money-making sports agent Andy Singh (Gulshan Grover) milking his new client for millions of dollars of endorsement, get exchanged for hard cash, fast women, and hard liquor, before what all sportsmen fear, a career-threatening injury coming their way. Not to mention the cardinal sin for single-handedly failing against an arch-rival team too.

While Goal! was the definitive movie on football, Victory tried to be the same for cricket and adopted the same technique of having real players feature in the film. And credit to the filmmakers here, they got getting players from the various countries involved to participate, and not just digitally adding the actors in it, but to have real and meaningful interaction, which I felt it triumphed over Goal! in this aspect. For fans of cricket, I'd bet this is something of a real treat.

However, the film's quite focused too on the father-son relationship between Vijay and his dad Ram (Anupam Kher), who had pinned his cricket hopes on his son, and finally witnessing him realize both their dreams, only to be disappointed when he had forgotten his roots, and his drive to be world class. There's an interesting parallel here involving the father figure here between Ram and Andy Singh, one who has brought up the boy to become the talent that he is, and the other who pushed the talent to fulfill his commercial potential and downfall. I felt that this portion was glossed over, and could have made an even greater emotional impact when Vijay realizes his grave mistake. Not to mention the resolution of this subplot too, which was deep in melodrama, vastly hurried and lacking that emotional punch when it came.

Romance was also glossed over, even though Amrita Rao's Nandini was there from the onset and we all know of her unspoken love for Vijay. Again the tried and tested was followed to a T, but love got severely reduced to just 1 song summarizing Vijay's realization of her unwavering support and their subsequent courtship, before junking love aside to focus wholeheartedly on the game at hand. I felt that this lack of emotional depth in the film especially between Vijay and his loved ones, somehow provided that disconnect the audience has for the protagonist.

Victory doesn't steer away from expectations of a sports movie, but had unrealized potential which was traded for the familiar. The games too get played out to expectations (and provided some comedic moments in the after-game newsreels), so they became rather textbook with little fancy maneuvers. Perhaps it wanted to play a little safer, but in doing so it became just another genre movie without breaking any new ground.

Victory may not be able to win the race of box office..but it is a good sign for Harman S. Baweja who blundered his debut LS2050.Actually 'VICTORY' is only watchable because of the 45 cricketers in it and the leading man Harman.The script of the film is a bit dull.Music is totally boring and irritating.Only one song is there which can be listened.The theme of the film is good.This is a story of Rise-Fall-Rise of a cricketer named Vijay played by Harman.The other casts of the film were reliable and they did average and good job.But main attraction is actually the boy who failed to make the first impression in his very first film.But Victory will give Harman his proper distinguished recognition. The film is good for one time.The lagging script and bad music are the main negative points.Positive points are...Harman..the real life Cricketers...The story and theme.This is not at all a landmark.It is just a plain entertaining sports movie.

Harman stars as Vijay Shekhawat, a small-town kid, brimming with batting potential, who gets selected to play for the Indian cricket team. His is an overnight success story. From anonymous newcomer to Next Big Thing, it doesn't take long for him to fall in the wrong company - in this case a cunning talent manager (played by Gulshan Grover) who lands him big endorsement deals, but also distracts him from the game and gets him addicted to wine, women and wealth. By the time our hero realises he's lost everything that's dear to him, it's a tad too late. But nothing that a lazy screenplay-writer can't solve by resorting to the oldest clichés in the book.Victory too is more predictable than the weather in Alaska.Victory, unfortunately, is a completely forgettable film whose scenes play out exactly how you'd expect them to. Sports films often follow the same blueprint; there's rarely any surprise in how a film about cricket or football or hockey will turn out - the hero's side always wins. You see, the trick is not in the ending, but in how you reach the ending. Think about it - were you surprised that the villagers beat the British in "Lagaan", or that the Indian women's hockey team won the match in "Chak De India"? No, you knew that was going to happen twenty minutes into both films. It's the journey up to that expected ending that made both those films special. The problem with Victory is, there is nothing to discover, nothing to surprise you, and nothing exciting at all about how it reaches its expected ending. Amateurishly directed by Ajitpal Mangat, the film is laughable in its supposedly emotional scenes, and too long by at least twenty minutes. The climax, a real hoot, is inspired much from Indian cricket history, with creative liberties thrown in for good measure. So you have six sixers back-to-back, and one final one that smashes the floodlights. All this delivered by our hero who's bleeding profusely from the head, his vision blurred from the injury. Now the big question - has Harman improved since "Love Story 2050"? Well, he's lost some of his stiffness, and his acting's a lot less labored for sure. But it's going to take a much better film and a less stereotyped character for him to show what he's really got. I would recommend, additionally, that he fire his make-up man instantly - the patches on the forehead, the uneven pancake really doesn't make much of an impression. Amrita Rao is wasted as our hero's childhood love; and Anupam Kher hams it up as Shekhawat's upright father, cracking you up with his rhythmic paralytical spasms. It is a film that reduces real heroes like Harbhajan Singh and Brett Lee to junior artistes in the background. Watch it only if you have a high threshold for pain.

Going into the film I had absolutely no expectations...I tend to find any hyped bollywood movie to be overly hyped and full of rubbish. But I was left surprised, very pleasantly surprised and that was a good thing. There's nothing worse than having to sit through a movie with no expectations and get what you expect...

Sure there are flaws in this movie...Vijay's historic rise as a top class batsman is quite unbelievable given that he's goes straight from a virtual nobody to being the hero of the nation in one series...Not to mention the high scores he was achieving...Having watched cricket games it's not all fours, sixes and slogs always...not in ODIs. It's a different matter if we were talking about 20/20 but the game in this movie was ODI and not 20/20. If you want to get technical you've got to consider the weather, the state of the pitch, the ball etc etc. But we'll ignore these. Even so I'm sure the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Yuvraj would love to post consistent numbers as Vijay starts off with...

If the script lapsed in notable fashion it would have to be the transition of Vijay from earnest hardworking, straight laced batsman to playboy, rich kid snob. This faux pas could have been forgiven in the 80s when this sort of thing might have been the norm but sportmen of today are a different breed. They watch what they eat and do, how they act, what actions you perform. The eyes of the public, thanks to the scrutiny of the media, is piercing and unyielding. How Vijay can allow himself to act like a 70s rock star is nonsensical and the transition from one extreme to the other shows a one dimensional thought from the director and writers. Are there any cricketers who act like that today? Would that sort of behaviour be tolerated for an extended period of time? The flow of the movie is decent- there is thankfully not too many moments of over melodrama though the tense ending is quite a stretch.

Acting wise not many complaints. Harman Baweja is okay but at least he takes to the batsman role quite well having done some background research and practicing the swings and poses. At times he looks like a real player but we'll ignore the stupendous amount of sixes he hits. Amrita Rao had a small role but and she was okay. She's quite the expert in playing the friend whose girlfriend/love potential is never realized till the last third of the movie.

Victory is very much like Chak De India though thankfully there's no shah rukh khan to overact and spoil the flow and energy. So far it is the best cricket movie to be made thus far with the exception of the excellent Iqbal. Hopefully there will be others good ones to come forth, just as I hope there will be other football movies to outshine the terrible Goal movie and its subsequent sequels.

Who should watch this? Everyone- it might get a bit slow at times but at the end you won't really find a reason to account for the lost time.

People are just too silly to give someone a chance, or may be his timing might not be right b/c of his broke up with his gf. Harman Baweja steals the show, and his powerpack performance as cricket star is much better than his ex-girl friend's Fashion movie.

He just doesn't know how to dance but act very well own his own rather than copying someone. His acting is marvelous, and the movie is excellent. The movie shows, the idol of public isn't god, just a human being who makes mistakes and then regrets. Vijay gets selected to play for India and he hits the series so many times. Then, he sales products, so called sells himself for the big companies and endorsements. Later, he can't stay up with his place b/c of new stardom, pleasure and luxury. He is lost in the lust, then he soon begins to find out that this is not what he wanted to do and begins to transform after a dramatic fall, & starts from scratch and rest see it. Harman Baweja can act and please people give him some courage not discourage someone new. Abhi Bachchan gave his first hit after 4 years in the industry and his first hit was Dhoom backed by the yashraj banner and his pa Big B had five years struggle before he became an angry man. Here is someone from filmy background, & people are just trying to act against him b/c he looks like Hrithik. Hrithik is a god, so if someone has similar looks of him than, why can't you let be b/c it's just a miracle. Although, Harman looks more like his own dad, much taller, more wide bones, fat bones actually, just look at those two together, Hrithik is much skinny & different. Harman rocks, he dances in his first movie, he acts in his second movie and he brilliant in this movie. Quiet surprised that fashion worked b/c of meat show and this didn't because it was a new comer's movie. The stories of two similar just targeting the two different glam world, here it's cricket and in Fashion it was glam world. The girl gets all the awards and the guy doesn't get a hit either, people are just weird.

Anyways, Harman keep up the good work, just grab the right script and then put your 100 % and pray, the rest is up to god. I'm sure your you will have true taste of success sooner. Like this movie, if a star gets his first movie as a hit, then he or she doesn't know the taste of a true success. Success comes after a true failure, and failures are there to learn from them not letting oneself down. Each failure should make you stronger and know whats right. Exceleent talent possessed in you Harman, try to realize the best strength not just the good directors. Shahid Kapoor had his first movie hit, and then followed a series of flops which made him know the difference and he came back up again with hits after years. So, people stop the bad comments about this guy, he has a talent and he just needs a good script and your attention. Victory is a good script and it's the best work of him till date and he is playing, and acting but few dance moves. I would recommend this movie to all and please watch it. A true star, isn't who sells himself and leaves his family but a true star is a person who holds his values and then put the best out there. Harman gets 8 out of 10. The movie gets 7/10 because they could've tried to improve it. The music is alright, with some rajastani background. I guess, too much real star appearances overshadowed Harman's acting but he stands out this time. Awesome work by Harman, Anupamji, Amrita, and others. Excellent show, and i enjoyed it watching it, after long time a feel good movie came about the real stars of cricket. Harman keep up the good work and there are so many fans who want to see you act. Take all the negative comments as a learning step, and positive comments as a backbone to even work hard. People just are comparing him to Hrithik, people please he shares some looks but he isn't related to him, so try not compare with him. Harman is a talented actor and he wants to stand out but has had his wrong times, and has been overshadowed by many expectations b/c his father was a film maker & he moves like Hrithik. There are so many actors who have chosen bad scripts, given flops & even after giving hits and flops earlier in careers. Salman khan's first movie was a flop film, Biwi ho tu asi, and he acted worse in it until, maine pyar kiya and later own Salman has given so many flops in his career, so please don't judge actors. The movie Victory is a victory for Harman, he is very talent and showcases his best in the film.