(Note: This piece is not a review of the film ‘Dangal’ but contains spoilers.)
Dangal is a drama inspired by real characters and true events. But, it’s technically also a sports film. This father-daughter relationship drama plays out against a professional wrestling backdrop. And as every sports film has the predictable plot line of an individual or a team winning against all odds, we knew that Dangal would have it too.
This gets compounded because the problem with most films today is that instead of teasing the viewer with their trailers, they end up revealing the entire storyline and leave the audience to just fill in the gaps while catching the film when it finally releases on the big screen.
Dangal’s sneak peek seemed no different. The 3-minute trailer told us that the film revolved around the professional wrestler Mahavir Phogat, who regretted not being able to win a gold medal for his country, and dreamt of fulfilling his wish through his son. Unfortunately, he has four daughters, gives up his obsession to win honours for his country... until, he realises that even a girl can win a medal. Phogat trains his girls and makes them wrestlers, who finally win the coveted gold medal for the country.
Aamir’s parting line, “Maari chhoriyan chhoro se kam hai ke?” becomes the essence of the film’s narrative here.
So what’s left to see in the film? Thankfully there is plenty more in the second half. The trailer essentially plays out as the first half of the film in which Aamir proves once again why he’s one of India’s most gifted actors.
My problem with the first half is that the trailer leaves nothing more to be shown. Even a critical moment like the one in which it is revealed that Geeta and Babita have roughed up the neighbourhood boys, is already out in the public domain, thereby robbing viewers off the pleasure of enjoying such a decisive and crucial filmi moment.
If the first half sees Phogat and his daughters fight the “external forces” that stop them from becoming the wrestling champs from Bhiwani, Haryana that they want to be, the second half moves on to invest time on their inner turmoils. By that count, the second half of Dangal is more substantial in its quest to not become a regular sports film. It adds a few layers to the storyline which otherwise follows the predictable sports film story arc, wherein, underdogs eventually emerge as champions.
Think Shah Rukh Khan’s Chak De! India, or Aamir’s very own Lagaan or the sleeper hit Iqbal. A sports film rarely manages to escape this foreseeable ‘underdogs turning champs’ storyline.
What then adds heft to the plot is the nature of the conflict amongst its characters. For example, in Chak De! India - coach Kabir Khan’s own emotional baggage of having been accused of being a traitor, the different equations that the girls share with each other in the team, Khan and Bindiya Naik’s battle of egos, Komal Chautala and Preeti Sabharwal’s rivalry - all these add compelling elements to the routine story arc.
Dangal’s script in the second half, moves into a more cerebral zone. It explores a widening rift in the father and daughter’s relationship. It enters an area where we see a girl, who’s come of age under a strict, disciplinarian father, get exposed to a world that’s foreign to her, it entices her and prompts her to challenge her father’s know-it-all authority.
Phogat himself is confronted with not only a daughter who’s become defiant, but also an adamant coach that stonewalls his suggestions on how his daughters need to be trained to excel.
These are strands of the storyline which make it rise above the ordinary sports film. Hitting a six off the last ball, or scoring a goal at the last minute are inevitable parts of the climax in this genre. But it’s in the conflicts mentioned above that the real strength of Dangal lies. Could we have had more subliminal layers to the film? Yes.
But for now lets applaud the makers’ effort to make a film around women’s wrestling and roping in Aamir Khan to front it. Just like the Phogats inspired girls across the country to take up the sport, let’s hope Dangal too drives little girls to the akhaadas.