This is an inspiring film of the rise of female wrestling in a patriarchal society as the now young women enter the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and go for gold with their father helping them from the sidelines much to the irritation of the Indian team coach. Aamir Khan's character is too one-note with very little shade to his performance and I think the film suffers as a result along with the long running time which is par for the course with Hindi films.
The film has good performances from actresses Fatima Sana Shaikh (Geeta Phogat) and Sanya Malhotra (Babita) who looks to have done a lot of intense training for their roles. The father then loses his daughters to a national coach who trains the daughters for international competitions but gets the girls to unlearn what their father has taught them which causes a crisis of confidence. Dangal inspired by films such as Rocky and The Karate Kid have training montages set to music, a stern father who coaches them to a strict rigorous schedule. In the face of ridicule his daughters impress the onlookers with their strength and skill. So he decides to train them as wrestlers and enter them into wrestling competitions where they have to fight others boys as competition for girls did not exist. Former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan) discovers that his two daughters have a natural skill in grappling as they beat up two boys who were teasing them. This is one of the better movies from Bollywood.ĭangal is the name of a wrestling competition in India. Even the hair has a nice payoff later on. There is a fight between father and daughter that is tense and emotional. The story takes another step and the relationships get deeper. The darn thing is almost three hours and unlike other Bollywood movies, there are no long song and dance sequences. It follows the formula well and the characters are appealing. At that point, my main complaints are that it uses way too many montages and I thought cutting the girls' hair is a step too far. For an hour, this is a formulaic underdog sports movie. As soon as he had the first daughter, it seems obvious where this is going. This is based on the real family of wrestlers. He is inspired to train them for girls' wrestling. Then neighborhood parents complain that Mahavir's daughters Geeta and Babita had beaten up their boys. He is disillusioned after getting four daughters and no sons. With no support from the government, he failed to get an international gold medal for his country but hoped to be redeemed by a son. Mahavir Singh Phogat is a former Indian national champion wrestler. I was especially shocked when I saw him take off his shirt early in the film.the guy was ripped! His weight loss, gain and muscle mass is incredible. By the way, I was shocked at what Khan went through in order to make this movie.
Well made from start to finish and a most enjoyable story. While I wouldn't say this film is quite as good as his "3 Idiots" or "Like Stars on Earth", it is an extraordinary film.and I can see why it did so well at the box office. What will Geeta do? And, what of Mahavir's plans for producing a champion? Aamir Khan has an incredible record and has produced some of India's best films. Things do not go well there and Geeta experiences loss for the first time. Eventually, his oldest, Geeta, becomes the Indian women's champion and is sent to the national training center. So, he has his daughters wrestle boys.and they win. Instead of abandoning the idea, Mahavir decides he'll teach his daughters and make them champions.even though women generally don't compete in the sport in India. Mahavir comes up with the idea of him and his wife having a son.and he could teach the son to be a great champion wrestler. As a result, he never had a chance to compete internationally. Mahavir (Aamir Khan) was an Indian national wrestling champion but his father insisted he give up the sport and get a job. Why? I assume it's because in both countries, women's roles are very traditional and the film celerates women stepping outside the normal female roles and succeeding.a great message of empowerment. "Dangal" is the highest grossing Indian film of all time and among the highest grossing non-Chinese films in China.