CAN A WRESTLING MOVIE AIM TO TRANSFORM A COUNTRY ?

What are your potential options of leaving your mark if you happen to live in a tiny village in India’s most conservative state sometime in the 1990’s? Seemingly there are not many chances there open for you. You can become a farmer, a local official or simply leave to look for better life elsewhere. There is also one more possibility. You can train your daughters to reach for the gold medals in international wrestling competitions while proudly representing their home country.

The movie “Dangal”, released in December of 2016 is based on the life of Mahavir Singh Phogat an accomplished Indian wrestler who because of his insufficient means has never gotten a chance to fulfill the dream of representing his country on an international stage.  Mahavir as portrayed in the movie may appear to be somewhat harsh on his daughters, but one needs to keep in mind equally harsh conditions of life in the Indian countryside of 90’s.

Living in a village of Balali in the most conservative part of India Mahavir was struggling to make his ends meet, while meanwhile supporting his daughters in realization of his somehow quixotic dream in India where wrestling (known in its local pehlwani form) is one of the traditional sports, Mahavir decided to train his two daughters in the arcana of wrestling. It initially made the entire family to bear the brunt of incredulousness of the conservative village community whose elders accused Mahavir of bringing shame upon the whole community, where wrestling was perceived as exclusively men’s sport and woman’s place firmly established in a kitchen rather at a wrestling pit. But despite the initial problems Mahavir  always told himself that, "Everyone said I was bringing shame to our village by training my girls, but I thought, if a woman can be Prime Minister of a country, why can't she be a wrestler?"   

His home village having no proper facilities he has decided to build a rustic gym on his own and persisted in his choice even despite his wife’s pleadings.  What is more, he put his daughters onto a really deep sea, making them face boys in traditional Indian mud wrestling tournaments, what initially elicited salves of heartily laughter, contempt and rude remarks towards him and his daughters, however with the passage of time allowing them to gain essential experience and prowess and finally win the national championship in wrestling which was a ticket for the further training.

The turning point for his daughter Geeta was winning gold medal in national women’s wrestling competition after which point she has finally got a green light for her international match preparations. Movie's final part is centred on Commonwealth Games of 2010, which took place in India and allowed Mahavir's daughter Geeta to reach for the highest laurels thus fulfilling his deep felt dream. What deserves noting even despite knowing the finale of the movie it was still quite a thriller to watch Geeta's final fight. 

The movie is set in real, rural India where people need to work their best to achieve success. All the success doesn’t come here as a matter of luck, but is a result of blood, sweat and countless setbacks.

The deeper significance of the movie lies in its avowed promotion of women’s rights, especially in states like Punjab or Haryana where Mahavir stems from and which have an acute shortage of females owing to common feticide. The nation-wide program of Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao  purports to change this state of affairs for instance by financially supporting families with daughters. Thanks to its strong message the movie has somehow become an advocate of the program and its makers received tax exemptions in few Indian states as a result of that.  

RECEPTION

Everything about the movie beginning with the original plot is immensely beautiful and captivating. The storyline (unlike in many other high-budget Indian movies) has no flaws and is remarkably coherent and deeply takes from rich Indian storytelling traditions.  However the most captivating thing about the movie are the genuine emotions expressed by the actors (especially girls impersonating Mahavir's children  in the early stage of their life).

Dangal has absolutely deserved its unbelievable popularity in India and reaching for the mantle of the highest grossing movie in Indian history. The movie's high artistic quality stands in sharp contrast with another wrestling movie “Sultan” recently released by another Indian superstar Salman Khan.

The motion-picture has met with astounding reception both from the side of critics and audience and has been dubbed the best movie creation of Aamir Khan in his career by the leading English-language magazine India Today. It has also receive an aggregated score of 9.1/10 (based on close to 25 thousand votes) at the leading movie website IMDB.

THE REALITY EVEN MORE CAPTIVATING THAN THE MOVIE

As is often the case real life is even more spectacular than the movie as despite two Phogat sisters, there are three more women of the Phogat family who reached for various world titles in wrestling under the guidance of Mahavir. What may also be interesting real Mahavir was supposed to be ten times stricter than his movie portrayal.

The village of Balali now houses a modern wrestling complex for women and the sport has been firmly established as the

Making long story short Dangal is up to the rank of Aamir Khan whose movies are demanding and full of intelligent remarks. An absolute must see.

REFERENCES:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/28/sport/india-female-wrestlers-olympics/

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/dangal-box-office-collection-day-24-aamir-khan-film-stands-strong-inches-close-to-rs-375-cr/articleshow/56595023.cms

http://www.hindustantimes.com/other-sports/mahavir-phogat-10-times-stricter-than-aamir-s-character-in-dangal-vinesh-phogat/story-QbijRZDsgdqdNwBIQAjs5O.html

WHERE BUDDHA SIDES WITH MAO

  Among thousands of sites particularly interesting to foreigners that Beijing has to offer, one definitely deserves attention and is mainly popular among single day or “weekend tourists”, when at the same time many expats permanently residing here are not even aware of its existence. The place I want to briefly introduce in today’s post is the Panjiayuan Antique Market located in the vicinity of Beijing Subway Line 10’s Panjiayuan station.

  According to some of the banners proudly stretched at the site it is supposedly the biggest antique market in the whole of China. From rather humble and spontaneous beginnings in the 80’s the place has grown to impressive size and presently houses about 10 thousand sellers of various antiquities. All in all, Panjiayuan is also reminiscent of the exceptionally troubled history of China, where after many an ideological battle has been fought, nowadays statues of Buddha and Confucius literally side with the ones representing Chairman Mao. Judging from the expressions artfully carved on the faces of the aforementioned statues, they seem not to hold any hard feelings against each other. In fact, the mysterious smile hiding at the corners of their mouths indicates their absolute ignorance of the utterly earthly and therefore petty affairs of the past. Not less surprisingly, at some of the market’s countless stalls, Chinese version of the Bible can be seen lying peacefully in the vicinity of the Red Book, both preaching their own truths and both still meeting with considerable appeal and reverence.  

  Impressive as the marketplace is, don’t get yourself fooled, for apart from some telephones, gramophones, statuettes of Mao, and books, all seemingly belonging to the bygone ages you are not likely to find many ancient things here. Most of the so called “antiques” sold are, so to speak, “factory” new and for the most part, local peddlers don’t even try to pretend that it’s otherwise. Even with this in mind, the place is still extraordinary and showcases an exceptional variety of goods resembling almost a mythical richness of Chinese material culture. To shed some light on it, try to imagine 50 stalls situated next to each other, selling exactly the same product, while none of them faces difficulty finding customers!!! That’s precisely how it works with majority of the “antiques” being sold at Panjiayuan.

  Examples of some interesting things to buy and see include: traditional Chinese calligraphy and paintings (they are by no means old, but no less interesting because of that), jewelry, pottery, old food coupons and tickets, incense sticks, gramophones, statues and statuettes of Mao, Buddha and various characters related to rich Chinese mythology, ancient style furniture and lamps, and anything else that you may need if you want to give your place a slightly more oriental touch.

Apart from visiting the main hall it’s really worth to devote some of your time to the task of discovering numerous back alleys, as rather hidden from the spotlight there also exists some old school outdoors place full of makeshift stalls offering staunchly communist propaganda posters and books, where enjoying the sounds of the accordion played by a man who quite likely experienced the times of Chairman Mao himself, you can observe new and old China influencing each other for instance in the form of posters of Mao and Xi Jinping which are often displayed next to each other – some of the booths actually putting the latter in the most exposed place. Symbolical triumph of the future over the troubled past?

  Don’t be surprised if some of the sellers try to cheat you, initially offering their goods at exorbitant prices. That’s how it generally works with tourists in Asia. If despite your wearisome attempts the seller isn’t in the least willing to substantially reduce the price, you can always proceed to the next stand, as there is an incredible abundance of them offering most often highly similar products, so it shouldn’t take too many efforts to save some of your hard won RMBs. Prices generally vary depending on what you intend to buy, but as a rule I can safely say that you can get most of the goods for 30% of the price initially disclosed to you.  

  The only real downside to the place is the fact that there is no on site way to examine the authenticity of the goods displayed, no certification system or services of experts in the field.