Amit Sharma’s ‘Maidaan’ is a sports melodrama/biopic that needed more consistent and engaging writing, but it has its moments

The film stars Ajay Devgn, Priyamani, Gajraj Rao. It chronicles a great phase of Indian football, and its pluses get you through the bits that don’t work.

Amit Sharma’s Maidaan runs three hours, and let me say that I was never really bored. The film has its issues – more about that later – but taken as a whole, it is a watchable sports melodrama/biopic that’s sadder than you expect. This genre is usually about rah-rah triumphalism, but here we see the red tape, the personal issues – at one point, even the Government of India becomes an obstacle. And why? There’s not enough money in the coffers, so why waste precious dollars on a football team that isn’t likely to win any matches! Maidaan opens with India losing to Yugoslavia at the 1952 Olympics. The issue isn’t the loss. It’s the margin of the loss: we scored 1 goal to their 10. The commentator declares: “Mercifully, the match has come to an end!” Pity is the only emotion left, and AR Rahman’s score lays it on thick. It’s raining, but you could say that the sky is weeping, too.

You can read the rest of the review here:

https://www.galatta.com/hindi/movie/review/maidaan/

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