10 Must-Watch Cricket Films in The Lead To The World Cup Final
As Team India scripts history and cricket fever rises, we’ve compiled a list of 10 of our favourite cricket films to watch in the lead up to the World Cup final.
Reliance Entertainment/ YouTube
As Team India scripts history and cricket fever rises, we’ve compiled a list of 10 of our favorite cricket films to watch in the lead-up to the World Cup final.
Lagaan (Hindi)
Netflix
Just as no list of the best series on cricket is complete without the 1984 Australian miniseries, Bodyline (available on YouTube), there cannot be a list of the best cricket films without Lagaan leading the pack.
The appeal of writer-director Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Lagaan is rooted in its screenplay which is at once sharp and simple. But the reason it remains so special and loved two decades after it was released in theatres is because the film repeatedly reconnects us with the best version of ourselves.
About 40 minutes into the 220-minute-long Lagaan, Captain Russell (played by British actor Paul Blackthorne), juts his chin out and up to mock the uppity dhoti-clad villager, Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), and throw him a challenge: Beat us in cricket aur hum tumhara lagaan muaf kar dega.
This is the moment when the film very cleverly recruits us as angry, determined cheerleaders of Team Bhuvan. If Aamir Khan and his boys lose, we will lose as well.
Lagaan borrows generously from India’s cricketing history, especially the first all-Indian team that went on an England tour in 1911. Led by the 19-year-old maharaja of Patiala, that team had upper caste Hindus, Parsis, Muslims, and two Dalit bowler brothers of whom one, Palwankar Baloo, was later referred to as the “Rhodes of India” (after Wilfred Rhodes).
In Lagaan, each time a player is recruited—whether it is all-rounder Deva Singh Sodhi or Kachra the spinner — the film uses cricket as a metaphor, and turns those moments into showpieces of India’s diversity and unity. And simultaneously it casts us as the keepers of that glory, of India’s izzat.
Ghoomer (Hindi)
Zee 5
R. Balki’s Ghoomer, starring Saiyami Kher as Anina Dixit, a batswoman who loses her right hand in an accident and has to now learn to bowl with her left hand, and Abhishek Bachchan as her alcoholic, nasty, won’t-pull-any-punches coach Paddy, is one part real, one part magic.
Anina Dixit’s character is inspired by the life and grit of Hungarian shooter Karoly Takacs who won two Olympic golds in 1948 and 1952 with his left hand after he lost the use of his dominant right hand to an accident.
As Anina struggles to learn to bowl with her left hand, and Paddy shows her no mercy, throwing taunts, politically incorrect jokes and often being plain mean, Saiyami, who plays cricket in real life, doesn’t just do justice to cricket in Ghoomer (Spinner), but she has stunning body confidence as well as.
R. Balki likes making films about the indomitable human spirit. And Ghoomer is just that. It’s a film that inspires, goads, chides, and insults till, in our heads and hearts, we too begin to think that we can do anything as long as we have some of Anina’s determination and Paddy sir by our side.
Watch the film for its dogged desire to inspire, for some lovely performances, and for Saiyami’s bowling.
Iqbal (Hindi)
Amazon Prime
Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal, starring Shreyas Talpade, Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad, and Shweta Basu Prasad, is a sweet, small gem of a film that is both energizing and uplifting.
Set in a small village, it tells the story of a young, deaf, and mute boy who dreams of bowling for India.
A la Mahabharat’s Eklavya, Iqbal takes his five buffaloes — all named after cricketers — to graze near a cricket academy so that he can pick up some bowling tips.
Though Iqbal’s father disapproves of his cricket obsession, his Kapil-crazy mother and younger sister support him in ways that melt your heart. With their support, Iqbal overcomes several setbacks, including moneyed coaches backing a richer but less talented cricketer, corruption in selections, and an alcoholic coach.
Best sports films have transformative power, and light-footed Iqbal has that in abundance.
It doesn’t surround Iqbal’s persistence with filmy melodrama, nor does it exploit his disability. Instead of the usual, grit-your-teeth and harden-your-jaw kind of determination that most sports films have, in Kukunoor’s film Talpade’s Iqbal gazes at his goal with a gentle focus and a half-smile. That’s not just emotionally clarifying, but sublime.
Chennai 600028 (Tamil)
SunNXT
A sports comedy directed by Venkat Prabhu, Chennai 600028, a 2007 film, is about gully cricket, yaari-dosti, pyaar, and dushmani.
Set in Mandaveli, near Chennai, the film is about two local, rival cricket teams — Royapuram Rockers and the Sharks.
Rich Rockers always win, and poor Sharks always lose. But when one of Rockers’ top players moves to a different locality and joins the Sharks, the game begins to turn for the underdogs.
In between practice sessions, there are fights, forbidden love, some dhoka, and even a stabbing. All through there is rising tension that the Sharks will lose again.
With a fabulous ensemble of actors, Chennai 600028’s beauty is that it feels like we are watching the boys and girls we grew up with.
The film, which was remade in Bengali (Le Chakka), Kannada (Bangalore 560023), and Sinhalese (Super Six), is the only cricket film with a sequel, Chennai 600028 II, that was released in 2016 (available on (Disney+Hotstar).
’83 (Hindi)
Netflix and Disney+Hotstar
Iqbal opens with a scene when a whole village is watching the 1983 World Cup on a TV set tied to a tree.
Director Kabir Khan’s ’83, starring Ranveer Sigh as Kapil Dev, lovingly, carefully recreates that historic tournament and India’s against-all-odds campaign to bring home the World Cup.
Recounting the challenges and joys of making the film, Kabir Khan recently told me that he was very keen to include the 20th match of the tournament played at the Nevill Ground in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on June 18, 1983. Kapil Dev had scored an unbelievable 175 not-out against Zimbabwe, but no footage of the match existed and Khan said that Kapil himself turned out to be an unreliable source.
“I spoke with Kapil sir and he said, ‘Arre yaar, main toh zone me chale gaya tha (I don’t recall, I was in the zone),” Khan recalled.
So Khan’s team of researchers met old timers from Kent County and found the man whose car windshield Kapil Dev had smashed with a sixer.
“He told us, ‘I ran to get my car out and there was a stampede in the car park with everybody wanting to get their car out because Kapil was on a rampage,’” Khan said.
In ’83, the cricketing action is exceptional, but the film is not without flaws.
A lot of batting, bowling, and recreation of iconic matches and moments, including the one at Lord’s when India beat the formidable West Indies, are courtesy of VFX
As Kapil Dev lifts the trophy and pops the champagne bottle that he had been carrying all along, there are way too many tirangas in the stands in Khan’s ’83, but it’s the human drama in the film which makes it special and memorable.
Ranveer Singh’s Haryanvi-laced swag is so close to Kapil Dev’s, and Mohinder Amarnath and K Srikkanth are so endearing and talented that at several points in the film, I felt I was watching a replay of the 1983 World Cup.
1983 (Malayalam)
India’s 1983 World Cup win ignited a million dreams in every town, locality, and village in India. Writer-director Abrid Shine’s 2014 film, 1983, tells two stories about those dreams through the relationship between fathers and sons over two generations.
Set in a verdant seaside village in Kerala, 1983, a tribute to Sachin Tendulkar, begins with a young boy’s passion for playing cricket wearing the Indian jersey.
Rameshan (Nivin Pauly) is the village’s star batsman, but his dream dies a slow death under the weight of his father’s expectation to choose a job and income security over the risky business of cricket. When the same man becomes a father and sees his young son carrying his passion, he decides to nurture and support it.
The film has some great performances, and some cute comic scenes courtesy of Jacob Gregory who plays a Sachin lookalike.
1983, which won several awards, including the national award for best background score by composer Gopi Sunder, stays with you long after the film is over because at its crux it’s the story of the children we were and parents we can be.
Shabaash Mithu (Hindi)
Netflix
There’s a scene in Srijit Mukherji’s Shabaash Mithu that sharply summarises the story of BCCI’s men and their sexist bias.
But in Mukherji’s feminist biopic on India’s former captain Mithali Dorai Raj, that scene doesn’t end with sad, sorry, long faces of women cricketers. It ends how those women cricketers decide it should end.
Shabaash Mithu has a steely, self-assured core that bristles every time women are put down or their aspirations and talents are ignored. The film is moving, and entertaining, and it often laughs its head off when talentless men try to dictate what these cricketing legends must focus on once they get married.
I like Shabaash Mithu for many reasons, including how the film uses a burqa, a Muslim family, and a very traditional Hindu family to poke at many biases and stereotypes.
The film seamlessly makes women flit between what’s considered feminine and masculine, it shows girls peeing while standing, spin bowlers and batswomen in sarees, in bridal refineries, and then cuts to them in their blue India jerseys, on the field, bowling, batting, swearing and fighting.
Watch it!
Kaun Pravin Tambe? (Hindi)
Disney+Hotstar
Kaun Pravin Tambe? is the biopic of one man’s zid.
Based on the real-life of Pravin Tambe, who made his debut in professional cricket (IPL) at the age of 41, director Jayprad Desai’s beautiful and powerful Kaun Pravin Tambe? tells the humbling, moving story of a man from a Mumbai chawl who for years took up jobs only with companies that had cricket teams so he could play while earning enough for his family to survive.
Written by Kiran Yadnyopavit, Kaun Pravin Tambe? showcases not just Pravin Tambe’s obsession, persistence, and talent, but also Shreyas Talpade’s.
Talpade was in his mid-40s when he played Tambe. While bowling like Pravin Tambe, Talpade also carries Tambe’s quiet determination in his face and body, often hiding it from the world, but letting it show when he’s on the field.
Watch Kaun Pravin Tambe? to understand what real zid to play cricket looks like in India.
Kanaa (Tamil)
Sony Liv
Director Arunraja Kamaraj’s 2018 film, starring Aishwarya Rajesh as cricket prodigy Kousalya, and Sathyaraj who plays her father Murugesan, is flawed but interesting.
Everything in the film — from the shots of a beautiful village to little Kousalya’s two braids secured by colorful ribbons — is bathed in a glorious glow. Too many scenes in the beginning of the film are choreographed to seduce us with the simplicity and beauty of the village and village folk.
But at the core of Kanaa is a powerful, moving story about a cricket fan farmer and his young daughter in whom he sees a lot of potential.
Woven into the story of father-daughter fighting patriarchy, misogyny is the story of farm distress, of farmers being forced to take massive loans that often lead to suicide.
The film’s romantic track is a bit meh, but the performances, especially of Aishwarya Rajesh and Sathyaraj, are powerful.
Few sports films weave in real-life issues outside of the game. Kanaa does that nicely, and powerfully, and for a bit it makes us feel that whatever may be life’s challenges, victory on the cricket field can add a golden glow to a father and a daughter’s life of continuous struggle.
Victory (Hindi)
IPL began in 2008, and a year later, in 2009, Victory: From Ashes To Glory, starring Harman Baweja, was released.
There is a long list of Bollywood cricket films that are in the running for the worst film. There’s Dev Anand’s Awaal Number starring Aamir Khan, Mohan Kumar’s All Rounder with Kumar Gaurav, Nikkhil Advani’s Patiala House starring Akshay Kumar and Rishi Kapoor, and Kirket starring Kirti Azad about the state of the Bihar Cricket Board.
But Victory stands apart from all these films because it best exemplifies the excesses of Nirav Modi’s IPL as well as the unbelievable lengths to which Bollywood’s mummy-papa producers will go to try and turn their talentless son into a star.
In Victory, over 40 top cricketers from India, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England make embarrassing cameo appearances — Virat Kohli, Sanath Jayasuriya, Shoaib Malik, Muttiah Muralitharan to Waqar Younis, Allan Border, Martin Crowe… with the best reserved for Brett Lee, the Australian fast bowler whose deliveries have been clocked at above 100 mph.
In Victory, his deliveries to the dreadful hero, played by Harman Baweja, keep yielding humiliating sixers.
Watch Victory to see how bad bad can get. And to enjoy spotting world-class cricketers as they watch Harman-the-hero with awe.
