Review of Victory

On the whole, Victory will face complete rejection at the box-office because it has nothing except cricket and even that is not exciting or entertaining. Total loss! The film would find it difficult to complete even a week’s run in cinemas.

Victory Moving Pictures and Walkwater Media’s Victory is the story of Vijay Shekhawat (Hurman Baweja), a young cricketer from Jai­salmer who dreams of playing cricket for India. His simpleton father (Anupam Kher) does everything under his command to help Vijay realise his dream. Vijay also has a close friend and confidante, Nandu alias Nandini (Amrita Rao). Although Nandu loves Vijay, the latter treats her as a close buddy and nothing more than that.

After several rejections, Vijay Shekhawat is finally selected to play in the Ranji trophy match due to the intervention of the national coach (Dalip Tahhil). Vijay impresses one and all with his batting skills and is selected for the national team in no time. Vijay moves from glory to glory as he plays international cricket and often takes India to victory. Soon, a celebrity agent, Andy (Gulshan Grover), approaches Vijay and signs a deal with him to look after all his endorsements. Andy signs up as many endorsement deals for Vijay as he can, luring the cricketer with crores of rupees and, in the pro­cess, himself making crores by way of commission. Vijay soon starts ignoring the game in a bid to make more and more money.

He also injures his back but keeps playing without informing the selectors, of his injury, as Andy warns him that he would be replaced if he leaks the information and his crores would then stop. When the back injury is aggravated, the doctor recommends surgery but Andy does not even let Vijay know of this. Mean­while, Vijay’s father has given up on him after realising that money has blinded his son who has since moved from Jaisalmer to Bombay.

Vijay’s conscience is awakened one day but before he can confess to the selectors, agent Andy calls a press conference and accuses Vijay of cheating the selectors. Obviously, Vijay is thrown out of the team. The latter part of the film deals with Vijay reviving his career in the face of public opposition, after his back surgery. Vijay’s friend, Nandu, stands by him throughout his struggle al­though his father does not forgive him. The hurt father finally gives a hero’s welcome to Vijay when he takes India to victory in a prestigious match.
The film’s story is so predictable that absolutely nothing comes as a surprise.

Story and screenplay writers Ajitpal Mangat and Kannan Iyer have penned a pathetic script, probably assuming that the excitement of cricket would see the film through. But so half-hearted is their work that the film actually appears less like a film and more like a series of cricket matches. The emotional appeal of the drama is zero because of which the audience just doesn’t connect with the characters in the film. Darab Farooqui’s dialog­ues are good at a couple of places but they are otherwise very routine.

The screenplay is full of holes too. Why Vijay Shekhawat doesn’t clear his name when Andy accuses him of cheating has not been exp­lained. The least Vijay could have done was to get the doctor to say that he (Vijay) wasn’t even aware that he needed surgery. And yes, why would a doctor not tell the patient about an urgent surgery? Instead, Vijay’s doctor shares this bit of serious information with agent Andy. These stand out like terribly weak links to simply further the drama. The childishness of the writers is also evident in the cricket matches Vijay plays.

If he is in form in a match, he is shown to hit sixers after sixers, and if he is not in form, he gets out for a duck! There’s no middle path for him. Obviously, the viewer wonders how this can be palatable. Because of such weak scripting, even the climax turns out to be tame instead of being nail-biting. Like emotions, even romance and comedy are conspicuous by their absence. The pep talk given by the coach from time to time is so half-baked that nobody would ever feel inclined to give his best after hearing him.

Performances are all average. Hurman S. Baweja does an ordinary job. More importantly, he doesn’t have the image to carry the burden of India on his shoulders and take her to victory. A rank newcomer may have probably worked in the role but Hurman, with a debacle (Love Story 2050) to his credit, fails to make the story believable. Amrita Rao overacts in the limited scenes she has. Anupam Kher does a strictly average job. And why does he keep pronouncing Andy as N.D.? Gulshan Grover is effective. Dalip Tahhil goes through his role mechanically. Tinnu Anand and Aroon Bakshi pass muster. It’s embarrassing to watch cricketers like Har­bhajan Singh and Sanath Jaya­suriya trying to act because they fail miserably.

In fact, the whole exercise of casting real cricketers of different countries doesn’t serve any purpose whatsoever. A word here about how the various actors, particularly Anupam Kher, Tinnu Anand, Aroon Bakshi and Hurman Baweja’s friends, exult each time Hurman delivers a knockout performance on the cricket field. Stran­gely, their style of exulting and re­joicing is the same in match after match and run after run!

Ajitpal Mangat’s direction leaves plenty to be desired. The most un­fortunate part is that the debut-making director has not been able to make a film which can involve the viewer in spite of the hero playing cricket. Besides, when the bar for sports films has been raised as high as it has been by Chak De! India, any film that falls short of it would now find it difficult to survive at the box-office. As for Victory, it doesn’t even qualify to be compar­ed with Chak De! India. Anu Malik’s music is not even half as inspiring as it should’ve been. ‘Balla utha’ and ‘Mazaa aa gaya’ are fairly good songs. Song picturisations are routine. Cinema­tography (Vikas Siva­raman) is good. Action (Parvez Khan) is alright. Ballu Saluja’s editing is below the mark.

On the whole, Victory will face complete rejection at the box-office because it has nothing except cricket and even that is not exciting or entertaining. Total loss! The film would find it difficult to complete even a week’s run in cinemas.

Released on 30-1-’09 at New Excelsior (daily 2 shows), Liberty (daily 1 show) and 82 other cinemas of Bombay thru PVR Pictures Ltd. Publicity: quite good. Opening: horrifyingly poor. ……Also released all over.Opening was disastrous everywhere.

Issue dated Feb 1 – 7, 2009

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