Soorma - my first day first show review

I am yet to see Mary Kom, Mukkabaaz and many other sports movies or sports based biopics.

But if I were to rate Soorma as a movie among the ones I have seen so far like Lagaan, Iqbal, Chak De, Bhag Milkha Bhaag, Saala Khadoos, Dangal and MS Dhoni: The Untold Story then here is my ranking:

1.      Dangal

2.      Lagaan

3.      Chak De and Iqbal

4.      Saala Khadoos

5.      MS Dhoni: The Untold Story

6.      Soorma

Dangal takes the top place for me any day and Chak De takes the top place for any film based on hockey so far.

And that’s what happens when you go to watch a film in a genre that has already seen gems. Comparisons are bound to happen and despite my best efforts I couldn’t stop myself.

So let me start with what’s good about Soorma.

It’s certainly an inspiring story to bring to a wider audience through the medium of a film. It’s a story that must have been brought out. I learnt so much from it.

I would now like to talk about casting and acting:

A certainly good job of casting with each of the characters in the film including the ladies who were cast to play Sandeep’s mother and sister-in-law.

Loved to see one of my favourite actors Vijay Raaz in a better role even though my benchmark about him remains his role of Rehmat Ali in ‘Kya Dilli, kya Lahore’ and as the HIV+ patient in the Sony TV serial Bawandar almost 19 years ago.

Still, I loved his justice to the role and his abusive way of language. If I were a sports coach, I would have been like that.

Incidentally, Sony Pictures is part of this film. Some coincidence there?

Loved to see Kulbhushan Kharbandaji back in action after a long time. His acting was restrained and subtle and yet his delivery and that voice just did the job well.

Kulbhushanji, a personal request: Can we have more of your voice in backgrounds, voice-overs, story reading sessions and more. Badi mushkil  sey aisi awaaz se log nawaz hote hain.

Diljit shines and does justice to the role of Sandeep Singh.

Angad Bedi might shine even better in the hands of another director with a deeper role but he too does justice to the best of his abilities and scope in this film.

Satish Kaushik and Taapsee Pannu are good too in their roles and it was a complete surprise to see the character of Taapsee compared to what the trailer would have us believe.

(On a side note, I thought she was better in Running Shaadi. Of course she had a meatier role there. Do watch that movie even though it wasn’t a hit. I loved it.)

Unlike Dear Zindagi, I couldn’t see any out of place character or role in this movie. Hence good marks there as well.

And here is the surprise element for me. Being a in-the-closet self-assumed casting director, it was a surprise for me to see a face like Siddharth Shukla as Taapsee Pannu’s brother. Very well cast, I must say with a superb get up in beard even though his screen presence is hardly a minute long. Well done.

Songs and music:

The subtle theme music score that keeps playing in the background is good and so are some of the songs by Gulzarji along with the music by Shankar-Ehsan-Loy team.

I went into the movie wondering if I am going to experience something like a Kal Ho Na Ho music from the same Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy team and I was beginning to get a little worrisome about the songs and background music as the film was progressing.

But I loved the song: Ishq di Baajiyan, especially the stanza: Kabhi usey noor noor kehta hoon... Totally loved the lyrics and the music. Somehow, Good Man di Laaltain didn’t linger on much in my mind and heart and looked like a wasted effort.

But I must say that the theme song by Shankar Mahadevan kept playing in a loop on my lips for nearly an hour after I left the theatre today. And as I listened to it again as I was writing this, it totally blew my mind away and I came away remembering another piece of amazing poetry written long ago:

“Fanoos bankey jiski hifazat hawa kare,

Woh shama kya bujhey jis roshan khuda kare…”

Totally loved the lyrics, music and rendition of the Soorma theme song and I will listen to it again and again. Here it is for you: the Soorma Anthem.

And yet, when you make a sports biopic and that too on hockey, comparisons are bound to come up with the one right on top – Chak De and Dangal.

This film once again highlights why writing is going to be the differentiator even where you have a good theme and a story to make a film on. The classic benchmark for me is Dangal and how Nitesh Tiwari and the co-writers did a fantastic job there.

Even a non-sports film like Fukrey Returns scores extremely high for me given the fantastic writing work in that film. More on Fukrey Returns some other time.

Despite wanting to, I am not able to give Soorma a 5/5 rating because I could never come anywhere near what Nitesh Tiwari left you with in Dangal – that edge of the seat action scenes and the heart pulling writing and acting performances he was able to extract from the actors.

I think, without being prejudiced, unfair and unkind to Shaad Ali in any way whatsoever, I believe that Shimit Amin might have done a better job at least in the depth of writing that could come here as well as the way sports action scenes need to be directed. Chak De is far ahead in that department even as a nice job is visible in Soorma.

All said and done, I would still request my friends to go and watch the film for the real star here – the real life Sandeep Singh and for his inspirational turn around without which so many more things may not have happened as this movie would end up doing through this effort to bring his story to a wider audience.

The ripple effect of inspiration is far wider for any one of us to imagine when we try our best to stand again after being punched down.

Somewhere I was wondering if this film would do for hockey in India what Lage Raho Munnabhai did for reviving Gandhiana in India and what Taare Zamin Par and Dangal did to their respective topics despite the decades long work of activists in those areas.

I must confess that while this film may have unforeseen positive impact on hockey in India, Chak De was far ahead. And yet coincidentally it turns out that some of the crucial events of the incidents that form part of Soorma were happening right when Chak De was being shot and released.

While Chak De will remain a cult classic, Soorma will have its own nice little place under the sun.

Do go and watch it for Sandeep Singh and an honest attempt to bring his story to a wider audience even if it doesn’t measure up to my high standards; created and spoilt as I am by the masters who have flood lit the path before Soorma with sports biopics.

While my heart gave the trailer of Soorma a 5/5 rating and while the songs that you see as edited and presented on YouTube are all wonderful, my subjective rating for the film is a good 3/5 even as I would give a 5** rating for the real life Sandeep Singh which made us to come to know of some of the best things in life as well as about hockey. Do watch Sandeep Singh's TEDx talk.

Now I am eagerly awaiting Kaarwan on 3rd August and Reema Kagti’s Gold on 15^th August.

And if the goose bumps raising, jaw dropping Talaash is anything to go by; I expect Reema to at least maintain the bar she set with Talaash while a portion of me would really look forward to seeing the bar raised further.