A majority of Bollywood movies belong to Drama-Romance genre. RomComs or Romantic Comedy is another genre of movies that Bollywood has shown affinity to. But when it comes to sports or other professions related Drama, Hindi movies do not offer much choices. We have a few investigative thrillers, but almost no legal dramas. Bollywood sports movies are almost unheard of.
Bollywood Sports Movies
But Bollywood’s recent love for true stories has opened up new experiences for the Hindi movie audience and we now have quite a few Bollywood sports movies. However, these are more of biographies of stars than a look at life of different people involved in Sports. But that is changing fast.
1. Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander
This may not be the first, but is one of the first movies that had a sport or sport competition at the core of the story. The movie also explored other usual emotional and class aspects of human drama, but the entire story and movie progressed toward one final cycling championship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0LfpLOjJlo
Set in Dehradun, the movie is about the cycle race between two competing colleges, mainly differentiated by economic class. With limited access to equipment and facilities, Sanjaylal (Amir Khan) must train and beat Shekhar Malhotra (Deepak Tijori). He must also find out the deceptive plans of Shekhar and avoid repeating what happened years ago when hi elder brother lost the race because of a sabotage.
2. Chak De India
Hockey is India’s National Game. But its popularity is waning in the face of Cricket fro many years now. In spite of this, it is one of the only other game that the country has ever excelled. Chak De India is the story of Indian women’s National Field-Hockey team.
Although the movie mainly explores religious and sexual bias, discrimination, and politics, the movie has enough sports flavor for the fans of ‘Remember the Titans’ kind of movies. Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) is a disgraced Hockey player who has cost India World Cup Match title earlier. He takes up the challenge to train and prepare the team for the championship. A team that is divided by regional, religious, and class differences.
3. Paan Singh Tomar
The movie is the story of Pan Sing Tomar – a soldier in Indian Army and an athlete who represented India in the 1958 Asian Games. Although the race is part of most of the movie, it is his life and local injustices that is the focus of the movie.
Harrased in his village after an early retirement from the Indian Army, Paan Singh Tomar became a bandit in the infamous Chambal Valley. He was later gunned down by the security forces.
4. Bhag Milkha Bhag
The flying Sikh. India’s only name in the Track and Field Hall of Fame. And this one too comes from the tracks of Indian Army. He has one multiple medals in Asian Games and represented India in three Olympic Games 400 mtr race.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u71swQ4ksgI
This one too is a biographical tale. It traces Milkha SIngh’s life from his birth and migration to India at the time of partition. He later joins the Indian Army. The movie highlight his childhood struggles, his fight for survival in the Indian Army.
5. Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal
A contemporery story based on UK’s South Asian community, with footballs game at its center. Southhall United is facing deep crisis. There football stadium is slipping out of their hands, the team has talented palyers but lack motivation and focus.
Shaan Ali (Arshad Warsi) is determined to change the team’s fortunes. When he finds that Sunny (John Abraham) has lost a spot in a professional club team because of discrimination, he tried to enroll him on the South Hall United team. Will the addition of Sunny make a difference. More importantly, will he stick around till the end?
6. Saala Khadoos
Saala Khadoos is one of the recent movies from Bollywood that focus on or are based on real-life stories. Made simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi, Saala Khadoos focuses on the state of Boxing and the politics surrounding it in the country.
Adi Tomar (R. Madhavan) is a boxing champion wronged by his coach and the powers that be. He taked to coaching, but is frustrated by the politics of selection. He is suspended and transferred to Chennai, where there is no chance to find a boxing star for India. Things begin to change as he sees passion and talent in a roadside vendor, who apparently has been boxing for fun all her life, and decides to train her and make her a champion.
7. Iqbal
Cricket is an inalienable part of life in India. Every street every playground and any nook and cranny has someone playing cricket. But then it is equally hard to make it to the national team, where luck and getting noticed plays a larger role than talent.
Iqbal is a story of one such cricket-crazed boy from a remote town in India. Iqbal is about dreaming and working toward your dreams. Iqbal wants to play for the Indian team, but his father doesn’t believe he can do it. His sister helps Iqbal join a cricket academy, but he is soon banished for being too good. Will a ex cricketing great – a drunkard – be able to train Iqbal and help him with his dreams? This is a classic underdog story.
8. Lagaan
I think Lagaan is Ashitosh Gowariker’s master stroke at combining two important aspects of Indian history into one engaging narrative. Bhuvan’s village is facing a drought and unable to pay the taxes that the British government demands in this pre-independence India.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88HHcpKbSYQ
The solution? A game of cricket. If the untrained villagers, who have no clue what a cricket bat is or how to stand at the crease, manage to win the game, the British government will clear the tax dues. One of the best Bollywood Sports movies that is not really about the sport.
9. Mary Kom
Mangte Chungneijang is the only woman boxer to have won an medal at all the six world championships. Mary Kom is a biographical account of this prolific athlete from a remote village in Manipur, India.
The movie traces Mary Kom’s life as a kid and her journey to become the world champion at the 2008 championship at Ningbo, China.
10. Bend it Like Beckham
Bend it like Beckham is an Indo-British film starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knitely. The ovie talks about the Indian diaspora in the UK and the tension between immigrant parents and Britain born children. The bone of contention here is the game of soccer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt5Np3VElfs
Jess loves to play football, but her family sees this as something that girls in the Sikh community just don’t do. Jess is banned from playing and her team suffers in the finals. Can Jess somehow reach the game in time?
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