Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal

After seeing the movie, I had to see which league Southall Football Club plays for...

This is the 'general history' page where the results are tabbed. link

This is their current standing. Link

So they took a bit of poetic license... The acting was reasonable. Bipasha Basu looked like she was in an ad for H & S during the one and only 'item #'. She got her supergirl moment after being 'Clarkedale Kent' through out most of the movie. Jon Abraham looked athletic and though he can't act, he atleast seemed the part. Boman Irani had a few of his usual outbursts which were badly dubbed and I'm tired of seeing Raj Zutshi playing a Surd (unless ofcourse he is a surd, which when I saw him on the sets for a serial in the Hauz Khas ruins he wasn't). In general the supporting cast lacked depth. They could have given the rest of the team some dialogue, instead of using the same extras over and over again. I felt bad for the crying Bangladeshi who gets hit and beaten up. However, the storyline was good, in the sense that, it touched upon themes that any Indian sports person wannabe would be familiar with. I'm not talking about the racism aspect, but the total dysfunctionality in the team. Similar to what they showed in Chak de India. But why is the movie special enough for me to enter a blog entry about it?

There is a very important part and that is the apathy towards sports in India was very well portrayed. Not by the movie, though the movie did a good job but by the viewing public. Indian cinema is very interactive in that sense. You immediately know the public's response within a few minutes. Though it took only 5 minutes for the desi senti dialogues to start in the movie, it took a while for our small audience to start commenting. Show Bacchan getting shot 10 times and surviving, 'oh so very realistic' but show a football club topping their league and we become deconstructionists and realists. Someone should mention to them, that SHFC topping their league has more of a chance than surviving multiple gun shot wounds. Belief, about sporting achievement doesn't exist. There were 'ye kya hai' comments, singing with disbelief as we approached the finals, whilst we won our league matches.

The intermission allowed us to ponder the drawback of sports infrastructure in Delhi and it's schools , not to mention the psychological aspect of sports..ooohh... and I regaled everyone with my Baichung Bhutia stories. (He was a junior playing for the senior team when he studied in TNA Gantok. He looked good even then).

Good to see Dalip Tahil as the OCD clean freak, hat wearing, Johnny Bakshi aka 'dunne' (dung ? no 'done'), he did a good job of playing a sleaze ball. Some one should put him in a heroes role for a change. Also good to see some hindi speaking, with some ascent, BBCD actors bringing up the eye candy in the movie. Good though that they can speak hindi, not the eye candy part, though that isn't a bad thing.Unless they were Indian actresses, putting on an ascent ? I would be impressed by their dedication to their craft, but these days everyone has an ascent in India, so nothing new there.

So the plot was sort of cliched with Jon Abhraham having some BBCD moments, but ultimately showing his 'indianess' by seeking his father's blessing whilst on the field. We beat 'Aston' and the club is saved. I can only assume the evil financier (wanting to build a mall over the field) behind the white women was a Patel...

All in all prognosis ?

Immigrants over 40 will like it
Immigrants below 25 won't

I'm happy they are making movies about sport in India...

Now if only the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and Indians could get together and defeat Australia in cricket... now that would be worth watching !!