Flaws and all, Kabir Khan’s ’83’ (Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone) is not so much a “movie” as a rousing memorial to a great event

December 26, 2021

Flawed in places but a rollicking ride nevertheless. The cricket-as-communal-harmonizer angle propounded by IG isn’t really etched well but otoh they resist scenes like india-pak soldiers hugging each other at Wagah which a different film might have done.

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December 28, 2021

Comment section for this and Voldemort’s piece but exactly overflowing. Film has had an OK first weekend and a dull Monday. Barring a great second weekend, this is gonna be a turkey. Seems unbelievable but a lot of people are actually giving this a miss. I guess 83 does not have the same currency with zoomers who would have seen the 2011 WC win in their teens. I saw mostly older people and families at the screening I attended too. That spells bad news because older people = wait for it to come on OTT.

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MANK

December 30, 2021

Can’t believe the film has flopped badly. I thought this was going to be a bigger hit than Dangal, and perhaps even Bahubali 🙂 , mainly because Cricket is such a pan Indian phenomenon; and Ranveer has emerged as a genuine superstar, maybe not pan Indian, but someone who has the ability to pull in both mass and class audiences. Though movie audiences’ taste is always in a flux, i think Covid and its related socio-economic effects has made it totally unpredictable. It maybe also that the current youth audience – the 15 to 30 bracket – does not care much for this historic event at all.

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Voldemort

I can’t speak for the whole of the youth audience but in the theatre I watched the movie in had a fully young crowd, and they loved every bit of it. (This was in a Tier 2 city ) They didn’t know a lot of the details except that India would win the cup ultimately. There were whispers and discussions for every match on who would play well, etc which led me to thinking that perhaps the younger crowd enjoyed it more than the older folk who know most of the stuff. Funnily, that doesnt seem to be the case.

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Sharath Sambamurthy

I hope the season of biopics is now over. Each and every biopic movie has been so boring. I am glad the audience is rejecting such movies.

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MANK

Yeah it’s really baffling. i felt that Kabir Khan made as good a film that he could possibly make from the subject matter- and in the mainstream format that he was making it. The acting was terrific; Ranveer is phenomenal. As Brangan said in his review, it’s incredible how he manages to convert abstract concepts like ambition, leadership and determination into something concrete that we can touch it. Should KK had gone all mass masala with it? i don’t know. I didn’t feel that it was just a multiplex film. The film cost too much , that’s for sure. People are pointing towards competition from “Pushpa” and “Spiderman” as reasons for 83’s failure, or even the timing, with night curfews being reinstated in several places, cutting out shows. Would it have fared better if it was released in early December? one can only speculate. Now filmmakers will be terrified of releasing films in theaters , and we will see more and more films directly going to OTT platforms. All eyes on RRR now. I have a feeling that how it fares in theaters will determine the way forward for theater exhibition.

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One factor could be that the makers apparently drove a hard bargain with single screens and this resulted in many of the latter not screening the film.

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https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/83-box-office-collection-day-7-ranveer-singh-film-picks-pace-worldwide-1894392-2021-12-31

Worldwide Rs.115 cr and koimoi pegs its India collection so far at 71 cr.

That isn’t bad by itself but the high budget and competition with Spiderman has complicated matters. If Omicron doesn’t wash over the cities by 2nd week of Jan (which it unfortunately may if Delhi is any indication, or rising numbers in Mumbai), the film has a chance at recovering the budget with a decent week 2 and 3. But yes, any hopes of a Baahubali-esque mega hit can be safely banished at this point barring brilliant word of mouth a la Sholay (and that’s harder to achieve in the multiplex format).

Look at Spiderman’s collections here:

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https://www.koimoi.com/box-office/83-box-office-day-6-stays-decent-on-wednesday/

Look at Spiderman’s collections here:

Safe to say that, barring the curious, Gen Z has stayed away from 83 and the reason is likely that 83 doesn’t mean as much to them as it does to us who had to watch the humiliation of the 83 tigers having to play a benefit match with the demoralized 99 team to lift their spirits ahead of the impending WC debacle in England. The only source of solace during World Cups was watching the same old images of Sandhu castling Greenidge or Kapil’s miraculous catch of Richards’ shot. The Gen Zers in this ‘community’ can weigh in on what they think and how many in their cohort are interested in this film. But notice that none of them have volunteered comments at this point!

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shaviswa

Waiting for this movie to be on OTT

I don’t think this film excites me enough to watch in the theaters.

OTOH I did watch Spiderman (or should I say Spidermen) and that was a visual treat.

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Macaulay Perapulla

I thought this was an intriguing read on the ‘dishonesty’ of 83 movie

“There is no uncertainty in his voice, no fear, as if he already knows that India went on to win the ‘83 World Cup.

Or he could not care less about who did.
“https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/bollywood/dishonesty-in-kabir-khans-83-stems-from-its-desperate-need-to-cater-to-cricket-fans-of-the-virat-kohli-era-10237961.html

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Voldemort

The Gen Zers in this ‘community’ can weigh in on what they think and how many in their cohort are interested in this film. But notice that none of them have volunteered comments at this point!

FWIW I’m a Gen Z-er. 🙂

OTOH I did watch Spiderman (or should I say Spidermen) and that was a visual treat.

This I agree with. It was fun and a great sort of closure for Garfield and Maguire.

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Voldemort: Oh! Would have never guessed! I mean, your review was so good, so true to the mileu it could have been written by someone who lived through 83.

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Yajiv

January 4, 2022

@Voldemort: I too am surprised that you’re a Gen Z-er. Hmm, I wonder what that says about my own internalised ageism? 🙂 Your review was fantastic BTW.

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ravenus1

January 8, 2022

If ’83 works as a sports drama it is because of the incredible true story behind it and despite all of Kabir Khan’s mis-steps. The screenplay defines a lack of focus. If you’re trying to tell the story of India’s entire journey to the World Cup, it should have been a whole series. Or if you decided to make a feature film, you should have done better than a series of mostly rushed moments that do not give the epic build-up the narrative deserves. For instance, they could have begun with the Zimbabwe match when India was at its ebb, and the manner in which Kapil almost single-handedly brought back the team from the brink of ignominious defeat, inspired them to become the world-beaters they did. A gutsy film-maker would even have considered capturing the Zimbabwe game alone as in history also it is the sole unrecorded game (due to the BBC being on strike that day). In the bid to cram in every match India played in that series, the games are reduced to highlights on steroids, there is no build-up or flow in their depiction.

The only actor that makes any impact is Ranveer with his uncanny ability to absorb and emulate Kapil Dev’s persona. I must admit here that I am not per se a cricket fan, but as a kid the handsome toothy open-faced persona and flashy playing style of Kapil Dev was the one thing that would attract me enough to sit down to watch a cricket match. The two dialog scenes that really stood out for me are a) where Kapil vents about how the thing that makes him angry is people’s lack of expectations from India, and b) when K. Srikanth (Jeeva) gives a speech about the ‘mad’ captain who actually thought they had a chance to win this series when no one else did.

While it would be foolish not to expect a grand show of patriotic fervor in one of the country’s most significant sporting moments, there are scenes where this goes into puerile jingo. Also some really cringy homages, like Mohinder Amarnath playing his own father, Kapil Dev playing a spectator cheering himself, and a cloying reference to a child Tendulkar.

But the real story manages to overcome these glaring mis-steps and one is glad that a new generation of Indians can relive one of the great cricketing moments in our history, and one that, beyond the sport itself, forged a nation more confident in its own worth.

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Voldemort

January 9, 2022

Madan and Yajiv : Thank you! I have been meaning to send pieces for RWIs for a while now but always felt hesitant and slightly intimidated. But then with this, I thought what the heck, the year is ending, no harm in just giving a shot. Thank you for making my day !

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January 12, 2022

The film seems to have escaped the dire fate predicted for it earlier, grossing 100 cr in India and 180 cr worldwide. After OTT/TV rights are taken into consideration, it would at least get back the makers’ money.

But trade analyst Komal Nahta does agree that the film missed out on the young audience:

“One whole chunk of the audience — the 15 to 35 age group — didn’t see the film. You can’t ignore them if you make a film on such a huge budget. But, the youth doesn’t believe in the past, and are not interested in historical facts. Their cricketing heroes are MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. They couldn’t identify with Kapil Dev and his team. 83 did not have much for the youth”

He goes onto add, “If the film had a personalised and emotional storyline about the characters, it would have been successful in drawing the youth, like Sushant Singh Rajput’s M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story managed to do” – Yes, but this would have been tough when this was genuinely a team of 11, in fact 15, players as those who did not get to play every match, like Shastri, still made vital contributions. Not that Dhoni ever single handedly led the team to victory, at least not the important ones, but that kind of myth making happened in his case and was lapped up by his eager fanboys. Maybe had Kabir Khan been cynical enough, he would have capitalised the Kapil in Kapil’s Devils but luckily he didn’t do that and made a film true to its subject matter instead.

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Sai Ashwin

March 22, 2022

I watched an entire of 15 minutes before giving up on this fanservice pandering generic uninspired “content”.

A well made documentary series would have done far more justice than whatever this is. Also, call me pessimistic but success stories are really boring. Failures are far more interesting.

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This is really doing well with the NRI audience now that it’s on OTT. I thought it was such a fun movie because despite not being the least bit interested in cricket I remember 1983 well, as I actually met Mohinder Amarnath (ahem, what a scandal) and was totally invested in the Neena Gupta Viv Richards affair. Our whole girls college was crushing on him so she was our hero.

I also enjoyed that real Kapil Dev in the audience moment, come on how is that cringe? A film like this need to have these obvious easter eggs as well as many for the true cricket fans, i’m sure there were some… ?

Srikanth rousing speech injected some real energy into the movie… too bad that high was soured by the line he delivered later. “We won our way here, we didn’t come her on some quota.” Perhaps it is natural enough that a tam-bram would say such a thing but in a film coming out in today’s world this was such a depressing thing to hear. I was happy he was bowled out moments later. Nice one Kabir Khan.

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krishikari : Quota in that context could simply refer to the dreaded zonal quotas in cricket. The only positive development out of which was Ganguly getting a chance from East Zone. I highly doubt Srikkanth in the film (a pretty politically correct one) was referring to caste quotas. In 83, you had only SC/ST quotas anyway. Mandal Commission was a long way away.

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Madan, I’m sure you know better but it just sounded very off.
In 83, you had only SC/ST quotas anyway.
Aren’t SC/ST quotas caste quotas? I am totally ignorant about zonal quotas in cricket so I have to maybe look that up and see. But even today I hear about the caste discrimination in professional teams as in any other profession.

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By the way, shout out to actor Avantika Akerkar who played Indira Gandhi.

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krishikari: My point was that when there were just SC/ST quotas, the forward castes had no problems landing their coveted govt jobs and hence didn’t rant against quotas in the way that is common to hear today. Mandal was the game changer as it vastly expanded the sweep of quotas.

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Srinivas R

I watched 83 recently and absolutely loved it. I honestly don’t think it’s possible to make a better mainstream movie for this subject. I thought all actors were very good. Ranveer and Jeeva were amazing. Nice touch to have Mohinder Amarnath play Lala Amarnath’s role.

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People have complained about quotas since forever, not just after Mandal. I have heard stories about medical college quotas in the 1960s from relatives and how LC students were bullied into suicide. We hear it about it more now because of the internet but it has always been there. In athletics there were jokes about how some had to only run half the distance to win. Ask your parents or grandparents.

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krishikari : I take your word on it. As for the film scene, being that it is a cricketer in this context, I still think it would have been zonal quotas he would have been referring to. Just to explain, it used to be that the different zones – West, East, North, South – fixed quotas for representation in the national team, possibly to curb domination of Mumbai and Karnataka. The quotas themselves became the butt of jokes when, if I remember right, players like Arun Lal got in through quotas.

Even if the real Cheeka did have something to say about caste quotas, I highly doubt Bollywood would go there. That’s just not how they write lines. I can imagine that in a Shankar film, he has been ranting against quotas since Gentleman.

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Nappinai (@Nappinai2)

I found the film boring and over dramatic and I ended up skipping through it.

The manner in which the cricketing scenes were shown seemed off to me. In the sense that you seldom see a good closeup of the complete action being enacted – from the actor-bowler’s runup, release and to the actor-batsman’s shot.

If you compare this to MSD -Untold Story, the latter arguably provides an experience akin to what you get while watching a match (something the mind automatically connects to given the level of cricketing exposure these days). You can see SSR playing the helicopter shot in it’s entirety and in the exact same way Dhoni does, so that makes you buy into that moment.

In 83, you mostly get a close-up montage reel of RS cutting and pulling and many like me have never watched Kapil. Also, it doesn’t feel like any other cricket match I watch. The end result is that I can’t look past RS the actor and the cricket aspect of it is lost.

I am sure spouses had a story to tell, that it was largely reduced to reaction shots in the middle of the finals was another aspect that was irritating. Also, all that over the top off field drama, less said the better.

This is not a readily relatable film for me unlike MSD (even that may not hold true for younger folks). I am now fairly convinced that this film spectacularly bombed (if the reports it’s BO numbers are highly padded are true) is because it isn’t a good film and not because of the pandemic/KK imagined conspiracy against the film/ any anti-BW sentiment. I loved Jiva’s portrayal of Cheeky Cheeka though 🙂

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“In 83, you mostly get a close-up montage reel of RS cutting and pulling and many like me have never watched Kapil” – Well, there you have it. This is what I have been saying from the beginning. The problem is simply that the film has come too late in the day. I would not be surprised if you regarded Borg McEnroe as mediocre for the same reason. There’s nothing that can be done about the fact that a film has been made about an event that happened nearly 40 years ago and which a large population of Indians have never watched, not even in highlight reels. I only caught the tail end of Kapil’s career but I do have memories of him batting. Plus I have seen 83 footage multiple times back in the day. By the same token, I likewise gave MS Dhoni a miss because while I like Dhoni, I never liked him as much as Kapil Dev nor do I regard either the 07 or 11 triumphs as comparable to 83. 83 is the greatest world cup triumph of just about any team at the world cup stage and maybe only Australia in 87 compares. I am sure nobody expected the then in deep descent Australian team to go all the way, in fact it was assumed beforehand that Eden would be treated to an India-Pak final (treated, those were the days) and neither team made it to the final.

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vijay

“This is not a readily relatable film for me unlike MSD (even that may not hold true for younger folks). ”

When Dhoni is still playing in IPL, a film on him several years back was too early. The events had just happened. Beyond the curiosity factor of how well SSR could resemble or imitate MSD, there is nothing to look forward in the movie itself.. As George Carlin would say, ‘how do you expect me to be nostalgic about something that happened yesterday?…”
The irony, if tragic, is that the star is gone while the legendary guy he played is still well alive and kicking..has that ever happened in Hollywood?

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Saket

83 has broken the record for the highest views (in terms of hours) for a Bollywood film in its first week on Netflix.

It’s comfortably ahead of Sooryavanshi, which had roughly 7 million hours of viewing time in its first week.

This, despite the fact that it also got a simultaneous release on Hotstar in Hindi and other regional languages.

Not to mention, the film had its premiere on satellite TV before its release on OTT platforms (Netflix and Hotstar).

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sanjana

Dhoni film, Sachin’s documentary and 83. It is like comparing oranges and apples. All have worked well with the audience. And 83 is special as it was about many cricketers instead of focussing on only one. And it also gave us a glimpse of those times when money was not flowing freely unlike today. It is not all about Kapil only but also about Yashpal Sharma, Balvinder singh sandhu, Srikkanth, Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Roger Binny and every one of them. and also about other cricket teams like West Indies, Zimbabwe etc.of those times.
Sushant was quite good as Dhoni and the film itself deserved the success it got. In a way, it reminds us more of Sushant because of the tragic end of the reel hero.

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