Is a documentary drama on the one the most revered legendary personalities of Cricket.
This biopic is a well put together story of the Icon , mainly from his point of view and recollections that begin right from his childhood, to upto his retirement from Indian cricket.
Its a trifle difficult to write this review as I am not really a hardcore cricket buff and though I admire Sachin, I dont breathe and live him like many others. So I write this review from a very unbiased and purely cinematic point of view.
As a director, James Erskine had quite a task to make the film interesting enough without any dramatisation at all, and at the same time,being very discreet and sensitive while portraying the personal life of the fiercely private Sachin.
I must say he’s done it fairly well as we were definitely glued during the entire duration without any sagging moment. The dramatisation of his childhood had some strikingly resembling actors playing the pivotal roles of Sachin himself and his family and coach.
Sachin himself relates his struggles, his inspirations, his moments of despair and strength and shares a lot of his personal life with real footages.
There are footages of most of his milestone matches.
We have inputs from Harsha Bhogle , Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli, Wasim Aqram , Shane Warne and some others.
The background score by Rahman is good but I wonder where was that much publicised song that Sachin himself sang with Sonu Nigam .
Though the director did a fairly good job of portraying what he was allowed to, I personally felt asking for more. His game strategies or dressing room stories were missing. Except for a brief hint at Azhar Sachin revelry, nothing was mentioned. Also except for Virender Sehwag,Virat and very briefly Saurabh Ganguly, none of his co-player’s inputs were there. It was not a 360 degree view of his personality. It was more or less autobiographical.
Dhoni was very conspicuously missing, considering that Sachin played his last and most successful golden phase under Dhoni’s captaincy.
Sachin ‘s most important dream,the world cup,without which he wouldn’t have been the satisfied man that he is today, wouldn’t have been possible without Dhoni’s contribution.
Not a single line to this regard, stood out. Neither of the two had anything to say about each other.
I dont know if the credit of this should go to the director, or more to our connectivity with Sachin and cricket , but the film strikes an emotional chord with the audience.
There were so many overwhelming moments. There were sufficient claps and teary eyed moments to confirm that the film is definitely well received.
A good watch for sure and a must watch for cricket and Sachin fans.
Score 6 on 10 , purely from cinematic point of view.