'Maidaan' Review: Ajay Devgn strikes gold, yet again

India celebrated its 'golden era' in football, even earning the moniker of 'Brazil of Asia' in the 1950s. During this time, with players like Chuni Goswami, P K Banerjee, Peter Thangaraj, Tulsidas Balaram, Jarnail Singh, and Pradyut Barman, the team ended in fourth place at the 1956 Olympics and won gold at the Asian Games in 1951 and 1962. While they played hard on the turf, Syed Abdul Rahim was the man who created and coached this team.

'Maidaan', starring Ajay Devgn, aces the job of celebrating the passion and love of 'Rahim saab' towards the sport and how he put India on the world map.

However, the film is not jingoistic or only highlights his big feats - it's more about the roadblocks he faced during his stint. It's about how he fought politics, media animosity, and regional biases to build a team that could fight against the best.

'Maidaan' is about a family that stands by this man's deep passion, asking him to choose football rather than spend his last few months with them. It is about how 'jazbaa' (enthusiasm) is all that you need to fight the toughest opponents on any field. And when you are 'that' good at what you do, you do win over your naysayers one day.

Director Amit Ravindernath Sharma is used to making 30-second advertisements, and 'Maidaan' gives him a chance to helm something more than 300 times longer. He did falter in the first half of the 180-minute film, as the slow pace tests your patience. However, in the second half, he headbutts it out of the park with an engaging screenplay and some delightful camera work.

Special mention to sports directors of photography, Fyodor Lyass, Tassaduq Hussain, and Christopher Reed. Given football is a sport of movement, probably for the first time, go-pro cameras have been used in a feature film, adding to the nail-biting experience. The matches are gripping and make you cheer for the players and even shed a tear at their failure.

Here's the trailer of 'Maidaan':

Also, the best biopic or period film is the one that makes you want to Google more about it. 'Maidaan' scores full points with that, as many in the audience were slyly searching more about the players or even the tournaments that Syed Abdul Rahim coached, while in the theatre.

After '83', this film has also struck gold when it comes to casting. The team not only got actors who looked like the original players but also trained them to play like professionals. Chaitanya Sharma aka Slow Cheeta and Amartya Ray stand out as PK Banerjee and Chuni Goswami. So do Davinder Gill and Tejas Ravishankar as Jarnail Singh and Peter Thangaraj, respectively. Priyamani, as Rahim's wife, may have just a few scenes, but her pleasant screen presence and highly expressive face do leave an impact.

Coming to Ajay Devgn, the superstar is on a roll after 'Shaitaan' emerged as a sleeper hit earlier this year. He sheds his 'Singham' personality and embodies the part of the coach so naturally. He is known to emote through his eyes, and he does that in 'Maidaan' so well. Even with a quiet demeanour and subtle personality, he stands his ground with his players and the authorities. The film also allowed him to tap into many shades of a human personality, as Rahim tries to perfect the part of a husband, father, and coach. He is also marvellous in the emotional scenes, especially when he sees the love of his life - football - slipping away from him.

However, we would have to give a yellow card to the dialogue and music department of the film. Apart from the 'Team India' song, none of the AR Rahman compositions really stand out in the film.

Given that sports films are high on adrenaline, we also expected some more dialoguebaazi that could pump things up. There is an SRK-esque '70-minute' coach diktat like 'Chak De', as Rahim talks about the power of 'one' as a team and position in the game. But given Rahim's soft personality, the makers may have chosen to underplay it, keeping things quite non-dramatic.

However, one of the sequences where Ajay's character calls out a senior sports journalist, Roy Choudhury (played brilliantly by Gajraj Rao), and uses Elvis Presley's statement - 'Don't criticise what you don't understand. You never walked in that man's shoes' - did have the theatre whistling.

'Maidaan' is not only a treat for football enthusiasts but also quite a delight for movie lovers. It immortalises the unsung hero, after whom India never qualified for the Olympics. Rahim, in one scene, says 'Kismat haathon se nahi, pairon se likhi jaati hai (destiny is written by foot, not hands)'. While it was the truth back then, you realise in reality, luck favours the brave, and SA Rahim was truly Indian football's Braveheart.

4 out of 5 stars for 'Maidaan'.