Rating: 3.5/5

There’s something about sports films that always gets you on the edge of your seat, even when you know history. And well, Maidaan successfully does that as Boney Kapoor and company share the journey and legacy of Syed Abdul Rahim, the coach who revolutionised Indian football.

Directed by Amit Sharma, Maidaan features Ajay Devgn as Rahim Sahab along with Priyamani, Gajraj Rao, and Bengali actor Rudranil Ghosh, amongst others. I watched the film last night at a screening, and here’s my honest review.

Is ‘Maidaan’ just another sports biopic?

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This Amit Sharma directorial, much like the films we’ve seen in the past, is not without loopholes. However, it is the last hour of the movie that ultimately feels like it makes up for everything. For those who don’t know, the movie is 180 minutes long, and until the very last minute of stepping into the theatre, it did feel like quite a task. However, it turned out to be a tad bit better on that front.

You’d expect the movie to feel dragged right before the interval, but for me, it felt like a drag of a good 20 minutes right when we were into the film’s second half. With so much build-up to so many things, you know that a few things need not be explicitly mentioned or told on screen.

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However, along with all of that, Maidaan also has a beautiful blend of sports with the emotions that come along with it. Fyodor Lyass, who has done the cinematography for the sports bits of the film (which obviously, is a lot), has done a fabulous job at bringing exactly what’s needed to the screens.

For me, the story builds up well, has great moments in the first half, and some impactful dialogues like ‘respect is a responsible term’, amongst others.

Ajay Devgn leads ‘Maidaan’, but it’s the boys who truly score a goal

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Ajay Devgn has his thing going on the screens, and it is in fact, the dialogues, the storyline and the sheer feeling of oneness that any sport brings that all work together best for him. While we’d love to see him emote strongly, those eyes do a decent job of trying to balance the act.

Gajraj Rao plays a journalist, who seems to have a strong beef with Rahim, and for the first time, seeing him made me have this strong feeling of hating him to the core (on screen, of course). He does a fabulous job as Prabhu Ghosh. His partner in crime, played by Rudranil Ghosh, is another character who everyone hates. Of course, as one would expect, they are given their redemption in the end.

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Moving on, while several young actors catch our attention in Maidaan and do a great job on screen, some of my personal favourites include Chaitanya Sharma as PK Banerjee, Amartya Ray as Chuni Goswami, Davinder Gill as Jarnail Singh, and Tejas Ravishankar as Peter Thangaraj. They all make a solid difference to the narrative, and I love their performances. Not to say, everyone has in fact, done a great job and kudos to the casting director for truly acing every single character from the lot.

Meanwhile, Priyamani, who is an absolutely lovely actor, sadly doesn’t have a lot to do as Runa, Rahim’s wife. It’s a character that I believe could have been given a little more depth. Rishab Joshi as Hakim, Rahim’s son, is also a performance that does grab our attention and rightly so!

The highs – cinematography and attention to detail

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When narrating a sports drama, one needs to make sure that they work in a way that the final hour of the film is the cherry on the cake, and so it was. While I believe that a lot of the credit for this goes to the cinematography, due credit to the writers Saiwyn Quadras and Ritesh Shah for the screenplay and dialogues, respectively. There are a bunch of goosebumps-inducing moments in Maidaan, enough that they make you feel like it’s a real match you are watching in theatres.

A couple of scenes did catch my eye, and one of them includes this one scene where the Australian coach taps one of the Indian players on the back and wipes his hand on his t-shirt as he moves out—quite clearly indicating the feeling towards Indians back in those times. Another scene that made me want to go back in time to be in the stadium was when after this one tremendously difficult game, the entire stadium is chanting ‘well played India’ in a foreign nation. Sadly, I don’t have anything exceptional to say about most of the music of Maidaan, but it partly does a decent job.

Major flashbacks of ‘Chak De! India’

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I just cannot help but talk about this because multiple scenes from Maidaan truly remind me of that Chak De! India, a personal favourite when it comes to sports films. However, this isn’t really a low for the film, but just something to think about because it’s one of those films that has had an impact on lakhs of people, after all!

From the way that the team comes together to the politics involved to the almost ‘sattar minute’ kind of moments, honestly, I enjoyed them! Just couldn’t help but talk about them because my heart was kinda happy by the time the movie ended because well, it’s just a job well done for this film!

Our verdict

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Maidaan has quite a balance of giving us ample moments that make us clap in a theatre packed with people and also those that bring us towards the edge of our seat. There’s all that along with some comedy, emotions, and loads of drama, of course.

All in all, if you love football and Bollywood, and are okay with spending three and a half hours in the theatre, you should give this film a watch!

Lead and social image credits: Zee Studios