Dangal: Movie of the year 2016

Some movies just entertain and some movies inspire along with entertaining, “Dangal” is one such a movie, which is emotional and inspiring yet entertaining.

“Dangal” is based on the true story of Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan) and his journey in making his daughters Geeta (Fatima/Zaira) and Babita(Sanya/Suhani) international wrestlers. The movie encapsulates the struggle, the tribulations of Mahavir and his daughters in a male dominated society and to top it all in a male dominated sport wrestling.

The biggest highlight of the movie is its screenplay which keeps you spellbound in the entire run time of 160 minutes. Every character is well etched and defined and none of the characters look out of place or not needed. The emotional moments just lifts the emotional quotient to a different level, especially the sequence when Geeta calls her father Mahavir, there are no dialogues just the crying of Geeta on one side of the call and Mahavir’s silence on the other, but the impact is so strong that you eyes also get moistened. Every sequence is carefully and articulately written keeping teh realism intact yet making it entertaining. The humour is very smartly included in the voice over which takes the narration forward. The beauty of the movie is that it makes you laugh, cry, inspires and give a sense of patriotism without being preachy.

The dialogues are another brilliant writing. Though in Haryanvi language but still the dialogues are heartfelt and creates the necessary impact as and when. The dialogues just increase the emotional quotient to the exact level without being mushy or dramatic. Kudos  to Nitesh Tiwari, Piyush Gupta, Shreyas Jain & Nikhil Mehrotra for such a brilliant writing.

The next highlight of the movie is its performances, starting from Aamir Khan, the beauty of all Aamir’s performances are that he owns the character, and the actor and the character blends, erasing the divide,  the same can be said about his portrayal of Mahavir Singh Phogat,. Aamir lived the character through the movie and it cannot be missed in his performance, I must say another feather in Aamir’s cap and another strong contender for the next award season. Sakshi Tanwar as Daya Shobha Kaur, Mahavir’s wife gives us a riveting performance and compliments Aamir’s performance. Her silence and her expressions just speak louder than words, definitely the best choice to play this role. Fatima Sana Shaikh as grown up Geeta Phogat, is definitely the debut of the year, a brilliant performance and her hard work just shows through. Her nuances in the wrestling matches will make you believe that she is a wrestler. Fatima is ably supported by another brilliant debutant Sanya Malhotra as grown up Babita Phogat, she gives the emotional balance to Geeta’s character brilliantly, and she makes Babita’s character a lot stronger than Geeta’s. These two girls are definitely the best debutants of 2016. To give a heads start to the character of Geeta, Zaira Wasim who plays young Geeta creates the right and perfect impact in the first half, definitely a brilliant performance. Suhani Bhatnagar as young Babita ably supports Zaira with her earnest performance. Aparshakti Khurrana as Mahavir Phogat’s nephew and the narrator does an outstanding job and gives the comic relief to the otherwise emotional movie. Rest of the cast also do a brilliant job.

A brilliant job done by casting director Mukesh Chabra for getting the right and apt actors for each role which accentuates the movie watching experience

Cinematography by Setu captures the rawness of a Haryana village and the wrestling matches well, and blends and compliments the narration. Production Design by Laxmi Keluskar & Sandeep Meher is realistic and does not jar the narration. Costumes by Maxima Basu are so realistic that every actor looked the part that he/she was playing, the whole look of the movie blends beautifully with the narration. Editing by Ballu Saluja is crisp and keeps the pace intact throughout the run time.In short brilliant job done by the technical team as well.

Now the captain of the ship the director Nitesh Tiwari, who did a splendid job in getting the right output from each department whether it was writing or acting or the technical aspect. Nitesh never goes overboard with his narration and keeps the emotional quotient exactly at the right level without being melodramatic. He does a brilliant job in creating moments especially in the father daughter sequences. Best work by Nitesh till date and this movie will make him one of the elite directors of Bollywood…

“Dangal” is a must watch for every age and section of the society for the social message that it gives albeit subtly… I will go with Four and a Half Stars…

Movie Rating: (4.5 / 5)