Victory

Pardon me while I work on controlling my laughter.

This has to be one of the most unintentionally hilarious movies of all time :)

Title: Victory
Year: 2009
Cast: Harman/Hurman/Hurmann Baweja, Anupam Kher, Amrita Rao, Gulshan Grover.

Baweja is a cricket wunderkind in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. He argues his way into a Ranji match (!), then is ushered into the Indian national team, loses himself in the hype and money of being a cricket star (!), loses all due to misguidance by his manager (Gulshan, of course), and then makes a huge comeback.

Ugh.

It’s not a bad story, but here it is again, with places where it misses the point in scripting, editing, and most of all, acting:

1. The story opens in Jaisalmer, but takes almost no advantage of its scenic beauty.
2. Harman has a South Bombay accent even as he addresses his adorable uncle, Anupam. Seriously, the boy needs voice and acting classes. Also maybe an eye doctor can teach him how to look straight.
3. Harman's getting into Ranji is a bit rushed- there could have been better buildup. They could have added in some Amrita-Harman romance, but maybe that was just as well- they seriously lack chemistry.
4. Even more rushed is his transition from Ranji (State levels) to National- he must be a true wunderkind.
5. Harman seriously needs to act better- 2050 was had enough flaws on its own, so we couldn’t truly blame him for it entirely. This is a flawed product as well, but we can’t constantly keep shifting blame here. For his sake, I hope he redeems himself with Gowrikar's next, since with Gowrikar's track record, chances are any failure would be attributed to Harman.
6. At the National levels, we don’t really get a sense of Harman's supposed sports celebrity. There is no connect.
7. Harman falls from glory- we feel no empathy. He makes no attempt to clear his soiled name, which is weird- any sportsman would at least have a press conference if they were accused of wrongdoing. Instead, he flails about in ineffective rage- I couldn’t control my laughter.
8. Anupam is upset- we felt bad, but ah well.
9. Harman goes for recuperation to Australia- and his treatment is aided by Brett Lee (!) Heeh!
10. Harman makes it back, and goes into a Rocky-style exercise plan. There are some serious issues here that my husband pointed out very kindly: Most of the exercises he does are aimed at building body bulk (except the skipping and running), which cricketers normally do not do, since they (ideally) aim to remain lithe for the game. Anywho.
11. Harman is magically inducted back into the State levels (!)
12. Harman is inducted back into the National team- after a lame 2-minute internal argument by the Board.
13. Harman suffers a BRAIN injury during the final game (though I suspect he has had a brain injury for quite a while now). Despite severe pain, he continues to play, gets zero paramedic assistance, and makes silly grimaces all the while. However, once he wins the game (of course), he exhibits no signs of any injury, gets no post-game medical aid either, and generally appears very OK.
14. It ends, and Anupam dies- for no real reason that anyone could understand.

And in Conclusion: It's pathetic. That said, who knows- in 20 years, it may be a camp classic- but I have my doubts.