Indian cricketers become Rajinikanth for a day!
Cricket and cinema!! Hush, Why always the battle on their co-existence?
Atleast to me, neither has a cricket match ended without a cinematic twist nor has a movie at namma theater ended without a cricket bite!! So, here is a toast to the cricket-cinema-concurrence! :D
Since early 80s, Cricket and Cinema has given us so many a cold shiver. And let me bias myself to Rajini’s movies to relate to cricketing heebie-jeebies.
Ladies and Gentlemen let’s rumble.
SouravGanguly, our very own Dada resembles Khalifrom MullumMalarum. Imagine dada whirling his shirt from the Lord’s balcony with “raman aadalum raavanan aadalum” playing in the background. Dada, just like Khali, is a rude man, but no one understands that only his rudeness is transformed into aggressiveness. He created a confident silhouette for the team and led with dedication to make the team a force to be reckoned with and him the “captain unparalleled”. His constant ego clash with Greg can be compared to the ego clashes between Rajini and Sarathbabu in the movie. In the movie, Khali’s sister never lets him go and stays with him disrespecting her affliction for SarathBabu, so goes the Indian team of never letting Dada go for Greg. “Ketta paiyyan sir indha Gangulyyyyy”
Rahul Dravid suits up to be Santhanam from AarilirunthuArubathuVarai. Just like thalaivar in the movie, Dravid works his butt off for the betterment of the team till the last moment and no one gives a damn about his contributions to the team , yet everyone tasted the success that comes off his hard work. In similarity to Thalaivar reaching the extent of getting married to a random girl, as the money would be of use to his siblings, Dravid took up wicket keeping because the team would benefit from the option of playing an extra bowler. At the climax, Thalaivar gets recognition from everyone for his efforts and so goes Dravid’s praises after retirement.
VVS Laxmanmirrors to be Surya from Thalapathy. He stood tall for the team no matter what, and so did Surya for Deva. Even the Aussies trembled at tests during his rule. His dedication was so like “If you want to touch my team, go through me first”, the same way Surya stood in front of Deva every time.
Sachin Tendulkarmatches up to MaanikBaasha from Baasha. Just like Manickam who worked as an auto driver and led a calm life, Sachin was knocking off random 50s and 100s and leading a life of a normal cricketer, but whenever the team was in trouble, he would play an outstanding knock to take us high and show us that he is way above the pack. I guess the consecutive hundreds he made against the Aussies in the common wealth bank series is one such act. Manickam shows his original self during the interval block and so does Sachin with his knock of 200 against the Proteas. Then just like the film moves into the flashback where Manickam recollects his past, so can we progress back with the old clips from Sharjah series to know who Sachin actually WAS. He was also gracious enough to repeat what he really IS with his knocks in the IPL and also the 2011 CWC. We can never get bored of the movie nor the character, the same way we can never stop going awwwwwww over Sachin. He has made our childhood so awesome that we will cherish it forever ever ever ever and ever. Tendulkar, Sachin Tendulkar…… Deva plays that ripped off bgm.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be Padayappa from the movie Padayappa. Thalaivar starts the movie by stopping goons from demolishing a holy snake pit, then he takes out the snake from the pit to kiss it and then would go on to win a pot breaking festival, the same way Dhoni came into the limelight with a knock of 148 against Pakistan and then another swashbuckling match winning knock of 183, to go on winning the T20 world cup in the same style. Dhoni continued to show off his awesomeness by taking series of victories just like how thalaivar wins over the hearts of viewers with his mannerisms and charisma in the movie. Thalaivar, after a period of hiatus, lands up owning on a granite mountain and he works hard to ooze out awesomeness to win over troubles, so goes with Dhoni when he won us the world cup for which we, Indian cricket fans have been yearning for 28 years. Both Padayappa and the world cup is cherishable for our lifetime. If Sachin made our childhood awesome, then Dhoni definitely made our teenage awesome. Can you not relate Thalaivar pulling down the swing with his shawl with Dhoni’s six in the world cup final? There simply isn’t enough adjectives to describe this!
In any topic about Indian cricket, how can we sign off without a word on very own N.Srinivasan aka Srini Mama? Yes, Being a unfaltering-mama-loyalist, I badly wanted to give him an awesome role from a thalaivar movie but nothing came across my mind other than Chakravarthy from the movie Netrikkann:P Instead of a womanizer, mama is the big boss of world cricket. Instead of being a playboy, mama is making everyone play according to his tunes.
All hail the Fuhrer Srini Mama!!
P.S Kohli echoes Sivaji/MGR from Sivaji, Raina simulates Ashok kumar from Kuselan, Ashwin approximates Dr.Vashi from Enthiran and finally Sir Jaddu would be Lingaaaaaa…!!!
