Sachin: A Billion Dreams
Sachin: A Billion Dreams (2017) is not a movie. Neither is it a docu-drama. It is a pure documentary — a traditional documentary. A dull, flat, and insipid documentary. How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me this life story of Sachin Tendulkar.
Director James Erskine has made several docu-dramas on sports personalities and events — The Battle of the Sexes on Tennis, Shooting for Socrates on Football, Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist on Cycling. He is experienced in dealing with sports personalities and making documentaries on them. However, this is not such an impressive attempt.
In his interviews, he said he wanted to capture “the boy who became God,” “the human behind the God,” and the culture of the time.
This “God” idea is thought-provoking. Who was the first to call him so, and thereafter who went on celebrating him as God — and Cricket as Religion — the sport which unites all Indians who are like broken pieces of a mirror? Was it merely Mark Mascarenhas’s celebrity management gimmick which nested in the collective consciousness of all cricket lovers? Had these questions been unearthed and interpreted, the documentary would have redeemed itself.
The economic culture of India — the LPG moment of 1991 — and the rise of Sachin, along with it the billions of dreams of middle-class Indians to be rich and successful — the documentary began well with this concept. Nevertheless, this stimulating concept had neither its “middle” nor an “end.” This fascinating metaphor is lost in the hagiography of Sachin Tendulkar.
The family culture of India, wherein a good wife sacrifices her joys and career for the success of her husband, makes his problems hers — is very well captured. It is the director’s success to make Anjali speak this in the documentary. Middle-class Indians grow their girls with such nonsensical stuff to condition their minds, wherein they are constantly ready to sacrifice for their husbands. Things are changing in India. Those were the nineties. The cultural dynamics, so far as man–woman relations are concerned, are undergoing tremendous upheavals. The director should be appreciated for this success.
The documentary gives a few more seconds to the frame when Sachin is out in the 2011 World Cup Finals and Virat Kohli is entering to bat. Virat is today’s Sachin. Culturally speaking, Virat is not Sachin. That God-element is missing. One shall be culturally right to be considered God in this country. Virat Kohli, with his “insulting” temperament, love affair, and tattoo, cannot be God for Indians.
Something pinches. The way the documentary mentions Mohammad Azharuddin as the conflicting “power center” which did not allow Sachin to settle as captain when he was very young to carry the responsibility — and the villainous portrayal of Greg Chappell — there is no mention of the much-wanted aggression in the Indian cricket team which was brought by Sourav Ganguly and the charismatic victories in all forms of cricket under the captainship of M. S. Dhoni. After all, the dream which had its beginning in the 1983 World Cup win ends in 2011 under the leadership of M. S. Dhoni.
Indian cricket passed through one of the worst phases of match-fixing allegations and IPL corruption. The documentary is completely mum on these controversial issues.
People like me share almost a common birth year with Sachin. We have lived with Sachin and his batting. He has given many cherished moments. Even as I write this, it gives me goosebumps. Whenever he batted well — and he did it innumerable times — we felt confident in whatsoever we were doing. We thought, today Sachin has played well; things can’t go wrong.
Sachin, though the model of so many products, never had an appealing screen presence except when he was on the ground with a bat in his hands — doing nothing but batting. His narrating of his story is one of the weakest points of this documentary.
Our wait to watch a film on Sachin like M. S. Dhoni or Bhaag Milkha Bhaag continues.
And this is very powerful statement. Sachin Tendulkar, so far, has lived his life true to his father's wish.
