Baby-faced Hashmi takes a break from his serial-kisser roles, shows how Azharuddin scored three centuries on the trot on his debut and eventually rose to be the skipper of the side — it even has a scene where the board president asks him the much-quoted lines Mian kapptaan banoge?( Sir, would you like to become the captain?) — and walked into a world of glamour and betrayal.
The movie skims over one of the most crucial factors of Indian cricket — how it has been a victim of fierce factionalism that existed between the West and South for long, the barrier broken when Kapil Dev became the skipper( he was from Haryana) and Sourav Ganguly was named captain( he was from Bengal) . But hardcore BCCI politics, I guess, is not the director’s cup of tea.
I was impressed with the courtroom scenes where two seasoned actors, Lara Dutta and Kunaal Roy Kapur argued vociferously against each other in Azharuddin’s match-fixing case. Dutta wanted him jailed, Kapur appeared sanguine Azharuddin had no option but to take that slice of illegal cash. Let’s not forget there exists a widespread theory that the cricketer was honey-trapped because of his proximity to a number of Bollywood starlets. And that, eventually, pushed him to accept Sangeeta Bijlani( Nargis Fakhri) and drop Naureen, his first wife( Prachi Desai) .
In the cricketer’s life copy, these two women play very little role, except Bijlani opened up the glamorous side of cricket to an otherwise earthy Azharuddin. His demands for Rolex watches, BMW cars and Tuxedo suits increased proportionately to the cash he demanded to fix matches.
Rest can be junked, including how Ravi Shastri — he still lives his life king size even after leaving the boundary ropes — and Navjot Singh Sidhu — whose life now is an interesting blend of cricket, politics and comedy — ganged up against him, and how Kapil Dev told Azharuddin that cricket captaincy is not for the side but for the nation. That’s routine, all young skippers take gyaan from seniors. It will definitely not move the fans.
