Cricket greats in Bollywood film
As teams prepare for the cricket World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh, some of the game’s greatest players are gearing up for an
appearance of a different kind — in a new Bollywood film.
Former Pakistan paceman Wasim Akram, ex-England captains Nasser
Hussain and Graham Gooch, South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs and
Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds all feature in “Patiala House”,
which is released on Friday.
The film stars Akshay Kumar, an actor noted more for his action hero
roles than his skills with the bat and ball, and tracks tensions between
a traditional Punjabi father and his son in the west London suburb of
Southall.
“My character Gattu wants to be a cricketer but his family is opposed
to it. So, I am trapped between my ambition and my father. He wants me
to work in his shop whereas I want to play cricket for England,” Kumar
told reporters. Director Nikhil Advani said authenticity was essential
with cricket providing the backdrop for the immigrant family drama.
Southall has one of the highest concentrations of people of South Asian
origin outside the sub-continent.
The script is reminiscent of Gurinder Chadha’s 2002 hit “Bend It Like
Beckham”, set in nearby Hounslow with Parminder Nagra as the
second-generation Sikh girl who defies her parents’ wishes to play
football.
“The film is about a cricketer’s life and therefore we have taken
many cricketers as actors so that we can get a real look for the film,”
said Advani.
Akram is rumoured to be playing the young Gattu’s bowling coach and
the film was shot at Test grounds, including The Oval in south London.
Advani insisted, though, that the cricket is not the central thrust
of the story but “the immigrant life... and the generation gap”.
The film’s release is timely nevertheless, given that cricket’s
showpiece one-day tournament begins on February 19 and lasts for a
marathon six weeks.
Joint hosts India might have been expected to have made more films
about cricket given its obsession with the game, the celebrity status of
its top players and Bollywood stars part-owning sides in the Indian
Premier League.
But they have been few and far between, and suffered varying
receptions.
Aamir Khan’s 2001 offering “Lagaan” (Tax) — about a group of poor
Indian villagers who take on their British colonial masters at cricket —
was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and is considered
a classic.
“Iqbal”, a 2005 film about a cricket-mad boy from a remote Indian
village who dreams of playing for the national side, was less successful
at the box office.
Sport has provided rich pickings for filmmakers over the world, from
biopics like “Raging Bull” and “Ali” to dramas like “Chariots of Fire”,
“Seabiscuit” or “This Sporting Life”. MUMBAI, AFP
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