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.
