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.
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