5 cricket movies to watch: The SportsRush present before you a list of five Bollywood movies which you can binge upon.
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The outbreak of a “pandemic” in coronavirus has affected cricketing tournaments in more ways than one. Starting from the announcement of the sport being played behind closed doors, the current scenario sees all ongoing and future tournaments as postponed with not much clarity on when they will begin or if they will begin.
Visiting teams/players have all returned to their respective countries to be with their families in these testing times. Players such as New Zealand fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan and England batsman Alex Hales are practicing self-quarantine as a preventive measure.
With the knockout stage of the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League getting postponed yesterday, all top-level cricket tournaments stand postponed around the globe.
With no live action at one’s disposal, below are five Bollywood movies around cricket which should aid you in killing time at home whilst social distancing.
5 cricket movies to watch
Iqbal (2005)
Director – Nagesh Kukunoor.
Writer – Nagesh Kukunoor.
Producer – Subash Ghai.
Cast – Shreyas Talpade, Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad, Shweta Basu Prasad, Yatin Karyekar, Prateeksha Lonkar, Dilip Salgaonkar, Jyoti Joshi, Adarsh Balakrishna.
Streaming platform – Zee5.
Written and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, ‘Iqbal’ is a story of a deaf and mute boy who aspires to play cricket for India. Frequently pulled down by an amalgamation of a lower middle-class family’s financial status and mentality, the movie portrays how the protagonist defeats all the odds to represent India.
Iqbal won the National Award for Best Film on Other Social issues. Naseeruddin Shah, who played the role of Iqbal’s coach/mentor, had won the National Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Kai Po Che! (2013)
Director – Abhishek Kapoor.
Writer – Based on Chetan Bhagat’s ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life’; adopted by Abhishek Kapoor, Supratik Sen, Chetan Bhagat and Pubali Chaudhuri.
Producer – Ronnie Screwvala and Siddarth Roy Kapoor.
Cast – Sushant Singh Rajput, Amit Sadh, Rajkummar Rao, Amrita Puri, Digvijay Deshmukh, Asif Basra, Manav Kaul.
Streaming platform – Netflix.
Based on Chetan Bhagat’s ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life, ‘Kai Po Che!’ primarily revolves three friends’ attempt at starting a sports academy/club. Apart from praiseworthy performances from Sushant Singh Rajput, Rajkummar Rao and Amit Sadh, the highlight of the movie lies in the layered script which covers multiple subjects in between starting and finishing around the sport.
Jannat (2008)
Director – Kunal Deshmukh.
Writer – Sanjay Masoom.
Producer – Mukesh Bhatt.
Cast – Emraan Hashmi, Sonal Chauhan, Sameer Kochhar, Vishal Malhotra, Javed Sheikh, Vipin Sharma, Shakeel Khan, Abhimanyu Singh.
Streaming platform – Prime Video.
Released in 2008, ‘Jannat’ is based on the infamous facet of “spot-fixing” in cricket. Arjun Dixit, played convincingly by Emraan Hashmi, is a streetwise youngster with a knack of predicting outcomes in cricket.
The movie puts on display his rags-to-riches journey of being an illustrious match-fixer in cricket. Given the legality of the profession, Arjun and wife Zoya Mathur (Sonal Chauhan) face due ramifications which find the former in deep trouble.
In addition to a movie which was liked by the majority more than a decade ago, Jannat also encompasses of a stellar music album which further adds meat to the movie.
MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016)
Director – Neeraj Pandey.
Writer – Neeraj Pandey and Dilip Jha.
Producer – Arun Pandey and Fox Star Studios.
Cast – Sushant Singh Rajput, Kiara Advani, Disha Patani, Anupam Kher, Bhumika Chawla, Rajesh Sharma, Kumud Mishra, Mithu Chakrabarty, Kali Prasad Mukherjee, Kranti Prakash Jha.
Streaming platform – Hotstar.
‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’ had registered a rare scenario of a biopic being made on an active cricketer. Based on the life of legendary India cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the movie depicted anecdotes which led to the making of arguable the best wicket-keeper batsman in world cricket.
Sushant Singh Rajput, who played the iconic cricketer on-screen, was widely applauded for his performance which is considered to be one of his bests till date. MS Dhoni covered how a boy from a small town changed thought processes around the country.
The movie also contained details about Dhoni’s personal life. From not supporting his son initially to rooting for him by the end, Pan Singh Dhoni’s (Anupam Kher) character was an exemplary when it came to transforming minds.
Dhoni, who led India to a victory in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, saw his biopic commencing and culminating from the same tournament which is also the biggest moment of his life.
Lagaan (2001)
Director – Ashutosh Gowariker.
Writer – Ashutosh Gowariker.
Producer – Aamir Khan.
Cast – Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Paul Blackthorne, Rajesh Vivek, Raghubir Yadav, Suhasini Mulay, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Yashpal Sharma, Rajendranath Zutshi, Akhilendra Mishra, Shrivallabh Vyas, Rajendra Gupta, Daya Shankar Panday, Aditya Lakhia.
Streaming platform – Netflix.
Written and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, there is no hiding to the fact that ‘Lagaan’ is among the all-time favourite movies of the Indian demography. The movie’s biggest achievement was it being nominated as the Best Foreign Language Film in the Academy Awards.
Ace actor Aamir Khan, who played the main role in the movie in addition to producing it, registered a phenomenal performance as Bhuvan.
Based in 1890s, Lagaan was a story of how villagers of Champaner struggled to pay tax to the Britishers due to a prolonged drought in the area. Despite minimal knowledge about cricket, the circumstances see Bhuvan accepting a challenge which stated that if the villagers managed to beat the Britishers in a cricket match, they would be exempted of all the taxes. However, if they end up on the losing side, they will have to pay three times the current tax.
With the movie being the oldest in this list, watch it for the sheer nostalgia it will bring to you in the current day and age.
