Dangal

The movie which has made an enormous amount of money in the overseas marketplace than here in India, Dangal, is quite an achievement in context. Of course, there will come a time when another movie surpasses this milestone, but till, this sports drama can soak in its triumphant moment. Though the triumph that played out in the actual film is undercut by several heavily contrived sequences, it does, however, feel good. This ‘feel good’ aspect is the movie’s saving grace and of course the steady performances of its lead actors.

The movie is told with the help of an overhead narration, and to be honest, it could’ve done without it and there would have been no difference, as the only thing that the narrator – the cousin of the Phogat sisters do is give exposition and some ordinary humour. The character in question seems to have been injected for this purpose only, as he only serves as comic relief throughout the entirety of the film while undergoing no significant character development.

The characters that stand out in the film are Mahavir and Geeta, naturally because they are the centre of the film. They are a father and daughter duo who have a lot of tension from the time the former decided the latter’s fate without giving the daughter a chance to flourish in any another discipline. This decision Is reinforced by the film’s axiom that it was always in her blood to become a wrestler and that it is better than actually being forced into child marriage and becoming a baby making machine – an atrocious thing that is still prevalent in modern day India, and one which is not scorned upon in the film but seen as just unfortunate.

Staying on with the film, what’s good about it are the moments that feature the characters practising the ethic of sportsmanship and the personal obstacles being overcome with perseverance and belief in oneself. These are the rousing moments that is the crux of all the reasons why this film is successful. Sports dramas have a tendency to shift the focus away from these glorious moments and focus on the lives of the characters to make us empathetic….and quite often they fail miserably.

There are certain exceptions of course, where the characters are shown to be fallible and pretty messed up individuals themselves, and in so not asking us to feel triumph when they win, but to accept the fact that for these individuals, this was a means of escape from their own self-destructive personalities. I am alluding of course to the one and only ‘Raging Bull’. However, Dangal’s heroes are your underdogs who challenge the norms and triumph in the end. In this case, that underdog is a female.

This makes Geeta’s final triumph even more rousing than if it had been just men. Obviously inspired by the success of ‘Chak De India’, Dangal shows us how the main characters suffer when they dare to change the traditions that've held their society cohesive for so long. Aamir Khan is wearing only a few expressions throughout the film – most of the time it is the ‘Angry Man on a Mission’ face – but with these expressions, he makes an impact on the audience, and the dialogue he utters is absolutely secondary to the expressions that he wears.

The girls in the film are pretty steady themselves and shine throughout making these actual people seem like real people with genuine dreams and frustrations. Both the young Geeta and Babita give good performances - filled with a good dose of humour and genuine pathos – although Babita takes a backseat and becomes a cheerleader to the older Geeta in the later scenes. Geeta character’s development is the only one which happens in the film, being from an obedient daddy’s pet to someone who strays away from her father’s daughter ( sorry I couldn’t help it), and finds out that she did him wrong and follows everything he says without question again despite the chagrins of her coach.

The coach is such a ridiculous character, and he is involved in one of the film’s downright manipulative sequences, and one which undercuts the triumph that occurs in the end. This is an unpleasant blot in the film, along with several other sequences that are drawn out just to create drama. Indeed, this is must be accepted as a tradition in Indian filmmaking where melodramatic moments are to be inserted whenever they possibly could. However, I do hope that someday they would have the courage to do away with it if it is not warranted.

All in all, Dangal’s success abroad, especially China, can be attributed to the fact that in its core it retains the basic narrative of the underdog triumphing over obstacles – personal and societal – to become the champion. While not really subtle, the steady lead characters and the performance by the actors make this real-life story enjoyable.