'Gold' review: Akshay Kumar's latest flicks a winning endorsement for brand India

Movie: Gold 

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kunal Kapoor, Mouni Roy, Amit Sadh, Vineet Kumar Singh, Sunny Kaushal

Direction: Reema Kagti

Duration: 2 hours, 34 minutes

Genre: Sports drama

Story:

Tapan Das (Akshay) feels humiliated and sad to see the Union Jack go up when British India’s hockey team wins the gold at the 1936 Olympics. After August 15, 1947, he wants Independent India to avenge that humiliation and compete in the 1948 London Olympics. His trials and tribulations while putting together a team, which will clinch us GOLD, form the crux of the story.

Review:

Currently, our national hockey team is considered a strong threat to top countries but are inconsistent. However, in the years between 1936-1948, the team was both potent and consistent. And it is during this golden period that Tapan Das, an alcoholic, unscrupulous, sports fanatic Bengali dreamt of India winning her first Gold medal.

Hockey was a craze back then. The royalty and commoners patronised it. Parents encouraged sons to pick up the stick and the administration gave them opportunities to display their proficiency in the field.

Here the star players, Samrat (Kunal Kapoor), Imtiaz Shah (Vineet Kumar), Raghubir Pratap Singh (Amit Sadh) and Himmat Singh (Sunny Kaushal) are subtle and superb. Each of these actors delivers convincing performances; staying on the assembly line and still managing to shine through.

Once again, Akshay is the backbone of this sports drama that has been shot on a lavish scale in Leeds and in Punjab. The actor, who has become synonymous with quality, gives this outing his all. Happy, sad, frustrated or furious, he internalises the process of a belittled man seeking to bring glory to his motherland. The nice thing here is, he makes his act look so simple. He dances with gay abandon in 'Chad Gayi Hai,' though frankly, the song itself seems so out of place. Monobina (Mouni), who shows up as Akshay’s dominating wife, is convincing.

Director Reema Kagti (of Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd and Talaash fame), who has until this film worked on a smaller scale, does a convincing job of decorating her large canvas with neatly-choreographed hockey matches, sepia-tinted frames and archive footage to convey her pre-azaadi message. But the pace of this film dips in several places. And the communal harmony feelings and situations seem forced. However, the only thing that carries it through at such times is strong – Long Live India sentiment.

Patriots will never come to terms with the British having ruled over us for 200 years. If you’re Indian, no victory (whether it is on a sports field or in any other sphere) against the oppressors is small. So, while one can nitpick and find several stupid situations in the way the Indo-Pak Partition drama unfolds or how the goras cheer for us on the field, you discount most of it because even 71 years after we have achieved freedom, we’re still seething about those who kept us enslaved. Saluting the Indian tricolour is a way of life for some of us and Gold unabashedly uses this to its advantage.

Verdict:

Akshay Kumar’s tally of ‘Gold’ medals just went up. Give Brand India and him a standing ovation.

Critic’s Rating: 3.5/5