This is the stroy of the 2010 Commonwealth Games areyears away. Has just returnedto Balali, her village in Haryana, aftermonths of preparation at the NationalSports Academy in Patiala. Somethingabout her has changed. She isn’t exactlythe same girl her father, former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat trained. She is more confident, ambitious, better skilled and ready totake on the world by storm.On the other hand, the rusticwants to keep things simple. The toughpatriarch wants his daughter to remainfocused on the elusive internationalwrestling medals for India. He doesn’tlike the way Geeta has been sucked intothe new training regime. He thinks hismethods are better than the coach’s atthe academy.
This is the beginning of a war that’ssurprisingly physical and abnormally mental. He challenges Geeta for a bout
where he would test her newly acquiredskills. As absurd as it sounds, the burlyformer wrestler, indeed fights his own
daughter with all his might. He losesand with it, the years of conditioning ofwomen and male domination arethrown out of the window. Mission ImpossibleIt is the early 1980s and wrestlers aretreated as local heroes. This is yet notthe time for gym-toned bodies andcommon folks like to believe thatwrestlers are physically superior tothem. On top of that, Mahavir SinghPhogat is a former national champion.Now a government servant, Phogat, whowears a gold ring and a silver-plated
watch, has a volatile temper and wantsa son to carry his legacy forward.
Dangal jukeboxSuch sentiments have already takenHaryana to the wrong side of the genderequality debate by the beginning of the’90s. His apologetic wife shows how you start likingyour oppressor because there isnowhere else to go. Not so directly, though. Tanwar’s comic timing tries todeflect the focus from her life to thelittle girls who are forced to fight thelocal chauvinists because their fatherhas decided to transform them intoworld-class wrestlers.Mahavir is doing it because he has adream to fulfil, but the girls have takenup wrestling because they are tired ofcringe-worthy men and unrepentantboys. No wonder, they get their firstboy-versus-e.Geeta’s face, stride and attitude screamof retribution. She is there to breakbones and the proverbial glass ceiling.And she doesn’t need to wear a classygown for that. She wears lycra beneathher loose shirt and shorts that leavesonly her palms and feet exposed. It’s instark contrast to the boys’ outfits: nothing but a loin cloth. Still somebodyin the crowd blows an obscene whistle.She must win the first fight. They celebrate your success when you are ona high. Some don’t. And you meet themagain when you return to your roots. Inthe rise and fall, what keeps achampion aloof from his surroundingsis the survival instinct and the motive.Geeta and her national champion sisterBabita ( Suhani Bhatnagar, SanyaMalhotra) know they have got intowrestling with a mission. Geeta andBabita’s quest to be at the crest ofwrestling. Daler Mehndi belts out thetitle song right here and you feela similar goosebumps moment that youfelt in Rang De Basanti, Lagaan andChak De India.But nothing can be so perfect, so avillain has to be devised. It’s a fictionalaccount, but a good story is nevercomplete without a strong antagonist. Ifit was the society in the first half, thewrestling federation takes it over in thesecond. It gets a bit preachy. But itdoesn’t matter: Mahavir and his girlshave already won the bout.This could be Aamir’s best performancetill date. Yes, even better than Lagaan. Aman making his daughters chase hisdream. He cries, frowns, gets angry, looks old and tired, but is definitely oneof us. When he shakes his headhelplessly, you see a father in him.When he gets into a brawl, he is thebrother you always depended on. Whenhe wants to see you win, you know youhave to perform. It’s not just his pride, it’s yours as well.
