83 Movie Review
83 Director: Kabir Khan
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Pankaj Tripathi, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jiiva, Saqib Saleem, Jatin Sarna, Chirag Patil, Dinker Sharma, Nishant Dahiya, Harrdy Sandhu, Sahil Khattar, Ammy Virk, Adinath Kothare, Dhairya Karwa, and R Badree
A red season ball with the autograph of Kapil Dev lies in one of the drawers of my room. Although a prized possession, I hadn’t seen it for a long time. Last evening, I looked at it with absolute pride. Probably because watching ’83 took me back in time, where my father narrated me stories of how a team of few men in white, who no one had any expectations, did the unthinkable by winning the 1983 Cricket World Cup at Lord’s.
The 1983 Indian Cricket Team, led by Kapil Dev, couldn’t have received a more fitting tribute. As I cheered clapped, laughed, and even had tears along with others in the cinema hall, I saw how the Indian team lifted not just the World Cup, but also the spirits of Indians then plagued by communal, ethnic, and security issues. The victory gave the country a renewed self-belief as a nation and also made the game a religion.
In a runtime of 160 minutes, director Kabir Khan brilliantly captures the nation’s frenzy for cricket and this cricketer from Haryana who wouldn’t want to settle for anything less.
From Kapil Dev’s Iconic catch to Viv Richards’ dismissal in the final match and Mohinder Amarnath’s spells of swing bowling, the film chronicles the two weeks of the Indian cricket team at the 1983 world cup. But what it also does is that it brings in a lot of personal anecdotes of every player and the emotional journey that they went through which becomes the highlight of the film. Be it Balwinder Sandhu’s personal loss before the big match or the tumultuous equation in the dressing room between Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, many such moments are delicately unveiled on screen.
But, wait there’s a flip side too. In the first half, Khan tries to tell the audience that this team can’t win the world cup in many ways possible. The screenplay is very simple which takes away the thrill quotient. Then again, that is how Khan likes to keep his films which can be seen in his previous work.
Talking about the performances, while Singh leads the team as the captain, he gets massive support from the rest of the cast that delivers some top-notch performances. Collectively they all hit it out of the park. From his convincing accent and dialogue delivery to the way he conveys many emotions with his eyes, Singh is riveting as Dev. In the scenes where he speaks in broken English and tries to get the bowling and batting actions right, the actor sinks his teeth into the character and does it with so much confidence, making it probably his career-best performance.
Pankaj Tripathi as PR Man Singh is simply amazing and gets some of the best lines along with Jiiva as Krishnamachari Srikkanth who is a riot in the film. Tahir Raj Bhasin as Sunil Gavaskar also has his moments. Deepika Padukone, who has a brief role, as Dev’s wife, gives a decent performance. Saqib Saleem as Mohinder Amarnath, Dhairya Karwa as Ravi Shastri, Harrdy Sandhu as Madan Lal, Ammy Virk as Balwinder Sandhu, Sahil Khattar as Syed Kirmani, Chirag Patil as Sandeep Patil, Adinath Kothare as Dilip Vengsarkar, Dinker Sharma as Kirti Azad, Jatin Sarna as Yashpal Sharma, Nishant Dahiya as Roger Binny and R Badree as Sunil Valson are all in top gear.
No matter how many times we’ve seen or heard about the 1983 World Cup victory, it’s impossible not to cheer, or choke up while watching it even as a cinematic experience when Kapil’s Devils (the team fondly known) lift the World Cup at Lords which is also known as the ‘Mecca of Cricket’, the country that gave birth to the gentleman’s game witnessed its erstwhile colony being crowned as the new rules of World Cricket.
Before the start of the tournament, the experts were busy analysing and predicting the probable champions, but fate immersed itself in writing a fairytale for India. A story of one of the greatest sporting victories which Kabir Khan brings back on the big screen. Prepare for major gooseflesh!