VICTORY REVIEW

REVIEW - VICTORY
In India, game of Cricket is a passion, obsession & to some extent religion, besides FILMS. Every 2nd person either wants to be in Indian team or in Film world. Even my young son of 12 years is a big fan of cricket and he dreams to be in Indian Cricket Team.

VICTORY is one such film based on the story of a middle class family hailing from Jaisalmer, headed by father Ram (Anupam Kher), who dreams of his son Vijay Shekhawat (Harman S Baweja) representing the Indian Cricket Team. Their hard work and dedication pays off and Vijay becomes the Indian team batting sensation.

But there is a twist to the tale, as Vijay is unable to digest superstardom and falls to the glamour, money and advertisement world, so much so that his attention gets diverted from Cricket, as a result his form dips miserably thereby leading to his ouster from Indian Cricket Eleven. This leads to displeasure among his fans, but the turning moment comes when his father suffers a paralytic stroke.
This tragedy opens Vijay’s eyes and he determines to redeem his honour and once again makes a comeback in the team and gets tom play against Australia in the Champion’s Trophy Finals. And as predicted, plays a key role in winning the Finals for India, his father and his fans. In between there are some twists and turns, when Vijay is injured in between and gets hospitalized. And when India are on the verge of losing, our Hero returns to bat, inspite of his injury and pulls of an incredible VICTORY.

The problem with the film is it’s loose and predictable Story and Screenplay, which matches no way to the earlier legendry films based on Cricket - LAGAAN and IQBAL.

First half is bit dull, but 2nd half and Climax make up for the poor 1st half.

Ajitpal Mangat makes a promising debut as Director, but the script lets him down.

However some excitement and eagerness will be there in the form of bunch of true life Cricketers’ presence as – Brett Lee, Stuart Clarke, Mike Hussey, Brad Haddin, Brad Hogg, Simon Katich, Allan Border, Dean Jones, Muralitharan, Jayasuriya, Vaas, Maharoof, Fernando, Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Graeme Smith, Morkel Brothers, Andre Nel, Harbhajan Singh, Yousuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, R.P. Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ramesh Pawar, Dinesh Karthick etc.

As regards to performance, veteran Anupam Kher as expected once again excels as a father. Surprisingly Harman S. Baweja impresses, he really has worked hard and looks like a cricketer, his body language, confidence, expressions seem perfect and he seems to be a right choice to play the lead role. One can’t fail to draw similarities between Indian Cricketer Yuvraj Singh and his character in the film.
Gulshan Grover ovceracts. Amrita Rao has nothing much to do but does justice to the role of a simple middle class girl.

Music bu Anu Malik is so so, Songs like – Money Money and Balla Utha look good in the film. However Cinematography by Vikas Shivraman is just superb and worth praising.

Overall, VICTORY is a an average film and can be seen once for time pass.

TITLES
Banner : Walkwater Media & Victory Moving Pictures
Producer : Manmohan Shetty & Ajitpal Mangat
Released On : January 30, 2009
Language : Hindi
Genre : Sports
Director : Ajitpal Mangat
Star Cast :
Anupam Kher - Ram Shekhawat, Harman Baweja - Vijay Shekhawat, Amrita Rao - Nandini, Gulshan Grover - Andy Singh, Dalip Tahil - Dilip Malhotra &
Scores of Real Cricket Stars.
Music on : T-Series
Music By : Anu Malik
Singers : Sonu Nigam, Sukhwinder Singh, Suresh Wadekar, Shaan, KK, Kailash Kher, Daler Mehndi, Anushka Manchanda, Krishna, Sudesh Bhosle, Mahalaxmi Iyer,
Cinematography : Vikas Shivraman
Choreography : Ganesh Acharya and Remo
Story : Ajitpal Mangat & Kanna Iyer