This is a Post from my old blog, posted in June, 2006
Ashayein khili audience ki
Nagesh Kukunur is nursing a dream, but this time he isn’t acting in it.
Nagesh Kukunur is nursing a dream, but this time he isn’t acting in it.
Mukta Arts is selling the dream but this time, Showman Subhash Ghai is not into all glittery mahals or larger than life heroes.
‘Iqbal’ is something real- a story of a teenage boy, a journey of his dream, a dream that many thousand Indians nurture in their hearts- to play cricket for India.
So the story is of Iqbal Khan, 18 ( Shreyas Talpade ) who loves Cricket and dreams to earn a national cap. But the obstacles start from right within. Iqbal is deaf and mute. His father ( Yateen Karyekar ), a simple farmer from the remote village kolipad, is however not happy with his son’s passion and wants him to follow his footsteps. But his mother ( Pratiksha Lonkar ) and sister Khatija ( Shweta Prasad ), a schoolgirl, love the game equally and fully support him. Khatija is a great source of inspiration and a channel of communication with others for Iqbal. She makes him join a local Cricket academy run by a veteran coach ( Girish Karnad ). Here Iqbal fine-tunes his bowling skills but suddenly finds himself ruled out of the academy after a stiff with a batsman, of course, the politics.
All his dreams, all hopes seem to vanish away but then he accidentally comes to know that Mohit (Nasiruddin Shah) a village drunkard and an ex-cricketer could help him.
Thus the drama begins. Iqbal has to do many tasks to catch his dream- first, to make Mohit leave drinking, then train hard, run away from home to play in Ranji without even club experience, convince his father, overcome the selection politics and finally get a place in Team India.
So, it’s all about Iqbal’s battle against these challenges with the support of his loving mother, confident sister and friend, philosopher and guide- Mohit. But even more it’s a cricketer in making, a superstar on board. Still, it doesn’t even once get melodramatic although it has every chance to be a masala movie.
Kukunur made protagonist is deaf and mute but not weak. He not only makes Mohit his ‘Guruji’ (Teacher) but also tests him before taking coaching from him before taking coaching from him. This is where “Iqbal” scores over movies like ‘Black’. Similarly, unlike many other movies, Cricket emerges as a distinct character of Iqbal. The focus is on Iqbal’s journey and not on Cricket as a whole. Still what it tells is a story of Cricket- Surely, a rare occasion.
There are several light hearted and cheerful moments like Buffaloes named after Bowlers, Iqbal’s efforts to hide from his father his love for the game and ‘Secret’ Training, Mohit’s Encounters with Khatija and her Mother, and many more… What marks above them all is Mohit’s Mantra- “Heart Thinks like Head”
The Music by Saleem- Suleiman and Sukhvindar Singh, Particulary the Themes of “Ashayen” and “Jeetenge Jeetenge” take the Story to New Heights.
However, at the Climax, the match fails to generate euphoria like that in “Lagaan”. ‘Iqbal’also appears to slow down at times,But overall, it’s a job well done by the Editor Sanjeev Dutta.
The Silhouettes of Iqbal running around the fields, the village environment and the Match ambience reveal the brilliance of Sudeep Chatterjee’s Photography.
On acting front, Shreyas talpade steals the show right from the beginning and makes us identify with him as 18 years old Iqbal. He is well supported by the maestro- Nasiruddin Shah; Nasir’s Mohit is unarguably the best Coach to have. The duo is simply great to watch. While Shweta Prasad, Pratiksha Lonkar and Yateen Karyekar do a remarkable job, Girish Karnad leaves a wonderful impact as a villionous Coach- a symbol of Curruption in Cricket.
Last but not the least, ‘Iqbal’ once again proves Nagesh Kukunur’s excellent skills as a story-teller. This time Nagesh is a much more matured director who succeeds to keep the ‘Ashayein’ (Faith) of the audiences alive.
