#365DaysOfWriting — Day 231
Dangal
The above picture sums up Dangal’s dichotomy beautifully — a desperate Indian father looking to realise his dreams of winning a gold medal for India through his two daughters. The dichotomy here is while Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan) shows he’s willing to take on the Haryanvi wrestling patriarchy and break the system, he does it in a manner that’s cruel, and borders on… no, it IS child abuse. In a town where sweaty, muscular men rule the akhada, it is refreshing to see two young girls take them down. But it is also heartbreaking to see them lose their childhood, their education, their innocence — and their hair — all to the dreams of a father who sees them as a means to an end.
Talking about fathers, I watched the film with mine today.
I remember us watching the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics together. Whenever wrestling would come on, we always wondered how they awarded points. Even after doing some reading, we found it confusing. The film breaks it down so beautifully — and that’s its first plus point. It makes wrestling more accessible, more understandable — in short, educational. It also keeps the wrestling very real. Whether it is in the sweaty mud akhadas of Haryana or the national/international turf mats, director Nitesh Tiwari keeps everything grounded. Mahavir training his daughters, facing ridicule at the hands of society, Geeta and Babita growing up in a male-dominated society and understanding that it’s better to count your blessings than your hardships, and Daya Shobha Kaur (the absolutely MAGNIFICENT Sakshi Tanwar) looking on helplessly as her life is torn into two by wrestling. The apathy of the state and national level sports institutions is also brought into full view. And the fights are all choreographed beautifully — you feel like you’re watching a live wrestling games. Here, it is on par with Shimit Amin’s Chak De! India, maybe even surpasses it.
In all this, Nitesh Tiwari’s direction and screenplay doesn’t let the film lag one bit — so much so that you’ll barely feel the length of its 2 hour, 41 minute run-time. There is proper character development and story arcs for everyone, even the supporting actors.
The acting is top-class across the board.
If there was an award for best ensemble cast, Dangal might actually win it — even with tough, tough competition from Kapoor & Sons. Aamir Khan shows us why he’s the best Khan in Bollywood when it comes to acting. He effortlessly separates his superstar persona to become Mahavir Singh Phogat. His desperation to win India a gold medal in wrestling, his half-despair at having four daughters, his Hitler-like turn to convert two of his daughters into wrestlers, his conversations with his wife — it is a huge credit to Aamir that not once do you feel it is Aamir on screen. And oh believe me, this is not one of his likeable characters. You will hate him, for most of the first half at least.
The gold star though, must go to Sakshi Tanwar, for she has the toughest job in the film — playing the wife of Mahavir Singh Phogat, a.k.a. the supporting actress to Aamir Khan. She could’ve easily been ignored or forgotten, and no one would’ve blamed her. But Sakshi Tanwar stands her own — in some scenes, she even surpasses Aamir in terms of sheer emoting. She doesn’t have too many dialogues, and expresses all her emotions through her eyes. And when she does speak in that inch-perfect Haryanvi accent, she makes sure her words have a lasting impact. She helplessly watches on as the patriarchs of Haryanvi wrestling (Mahavir included) turn their daughters’ lives upside down. Watch out though for her angry tirade when Mahavir changes his daughters’ diet.
The girls, all four of them — Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar as the young Geeta-Babita, and Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra as the older Geeta-Babita — are the heart of the film. We realise, sadly, that the girls are too young, and are buried under a society that’s too male, to be able to counter the abuse Mahavir heaps on them. All their efforts at rebelling, especially when they’re young, fall flat. He doesn’t actually slap them, but he does torture them. All four girls have a certain fire in their eyes, and tons of heart, and it shines through. One has to wonder about the real life Geeta-Babita though… Mahavir was truly the Terence Fletcher to their Andrew Neiman. And they do succeed (we all know the story) but at what cost?
A wild card in this film happens to be the character of Omkar, Geeta-Babita’s close cousin — played by Ritwik Sahore when he’s young, and by Aparshakti Khurrana when he’s older (I always thought he looked like Ayushman Khurrana a bit, and I realise today that he’s his brother). He’s the narrator of this whole saga, right from childhood till the time Geeta wins the Commonwealth gold. Both actors have done a marvelous job — from being Geeta-Babita’s punching bag, to being Mahavir’s punching bag, they get some of the most hilarious scenes and lines in the film.
The film falters slightly at the last hurdle though.
Apart from them, the hilariously cardboard, one-note ‘villain’ Coach Pramod Kadam (Girish Kulkarni) provides a few good laughs in the second half. And he’s also part of the most hilariously contrived climax confrontation. It takes the sheen off Geeta’s Commonwealth gold a bit, and undoes all the hard work the film does up to that point. What’s the point of having a serious, intense and exciting sports film if your eventual denouement is going to be lopsided towards Bollywood melodramatic cliche? However, the good thing is it’s only the last 20–30 minutes or so, and it doesn’t effect the overall quality of the film.
Dangal is a great film. One of the best Bollywood films of 2016. It might have even beaten Kapoor & Sons in my list if it wasn’t for that silly climax. Be that as it may, this is an important film. Don’t go looking just for the glory in the girls’ achievements — yes, they are glorious — but remember the cost that they’ve come at. Mahavir Singh Phogat may have ignited the spark that made wrestling popular in India among girls, but he did it at a high, and terrible, cost. There is blatant abuse and even normalisation of that abuse, thanks to the society we live in and the environment the girls were brought up in. So while we celebrate Dangal as a great sports film, it is also a glaring insight into the amount of discrimination girls and women face in rural India at the hands of men.
If there really has to be a ‘Dangal’ for anything, it might as well be for lives of girls and women in rural India. But that’s probably a discussion for another post. For now, go and watch Dangal for the film-making beauty, the sincerity of its storytelling and the performance of its cast. If you don’t… toh Dangal hoga!
Archive
1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16–17–18–19–20–21–22–23–24–25–26–27–28–29–30–31–32–33–34–35–36–37–38–39–40–41–42–43–44–45–46–47–48–49–50–51–52–53–54–55–56–57–58–59–60–61–62–63–64–65–66–67–68–69–70–71–72–73–74–75–76–77–78–79–80–81–82–83–84–85–86–87–88–89–90–91–92–93–94–95–96–97–98–99–100–101–102–103–104–105–106–107–108–109–110–111–112–113–114–115–116–117–118–119–120–121–122–123–124–125–126–127–128–129–130–131–132–133–134–135–136–137–138–139–140–141–142–143–144–145–146–147–148–149–150–151–152–153–154–155–156–157–158–159–160–161–162–163–164–165–166–167–168–169–170–171–172–173–174–175–176–177–178–179–180–181–182–183–184–185–186–187–188–189–190–191–192–193–194–195–196–197–198–199–200–201–202–203–204–205–206–207–208–209–210–211–212–213–214–215–216–217–218–219–220–221–222–223–224–225–226–227–228–229–230–231*
