Maidaan Review - Winner!

Ashwin Ram

Maidaan is a sports drama starring Ajay Devgn and Priyamani in the lead roles. The film is produced by Boney Kapoor and directed by Amit Sharma of Badhaai Ho fame.

Premise:
The story is based on the real life incidents of the football team that got India a prestigious Gold Medal in the 1962 Asian Games.

Writing/ Direction:
The runtime is over 3-hours long, yet the film doesn’t feel like so, as the emotions are set right, nothing can stop a movie from winning that has its heart at the right place. The first and foremost good impression is the powerfully written dialogues placed at solid situations that evoke instant claps. There are elements in the storytelling like the politics it speaks, the patriotic spirit and the mass comebacks strike a perfect balance between being realistic and commercial at the same time. Football matches are shown in a very live manner and there are many moments that honor the sport. Immense research has gone through to apply the rules that the game had back then in the 1950s. Nativity is well maintained, kudos for retaining the languages and casting the ideal artists as the film happens in various countries as per the story. Filled with lots of memorable sequences, the post match press meet scene at Australia and the ones that are displayed with examples are whistle-worthy. Fascinating idea to give a tribute at the very end to the original football players who got home Gold. But the personal lives and character specifications of at least the important players could have had more depth. In that case, the drama would have become tearjerkers and that was missing, due to which the emotions were restricted. Also, Ajay Devgn’s character undergoing a major health issue had a flat approach throughout and repetitiveness was felt. The on-ground footage length exceeded its limit as the games that were played over a decade was covered, limiting it would have provided a harder impact.

Performances:
Neat performance by Ajay Devgn, VFX is used to smoothen his face to show him young which was slightly bothering initially, thankfully the timeline shifts in the story took the factor away. Just a small role for Priyamani just to tick the family side of the coach character, but glad she had a distinct personality. All the boys who played the roles of the football players excel one another, they rocked by their physical strength more than anything. The artists who were a part of the Government, football federation and press were a great fit for their respective roles, some of them played a  crucial part in the narrative too.
 

Technicalities:
The film is outstanding in terms of technical aspects. AR Rahman’s background score elevates the mood of the emotional quotient and the banger mass moments to a different level, such powerful sounding. The couple of full-fledged songs that are there are just average. Excellent cinematography, every frame justifies the period setup, top-notch work with respect to angles and run through during the high-octane football match sequences. Fine piece of editing with no big complaints about the transitions and even the timeline shifts, but the second half could have been a little crisper. The other departments like costumes, art, etc have done the rightful job to present the film in a believable manner.

Bottomline

Keeping the flaws aside which are anyway not that disturbing for the flow, it is a classy presentation of a pride event that took place in the history of Indian Football. Follows the footsteps of a template sports drama, yet strikes the right chord.

Rating - 3.25/ 5