Review: Victory – 20 runs per over, no sweat!
Remember Hrithik Roshan‘s opening scene in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham where he closes his eyes and think of his parents? Well I just couldn’t help thinking of that as I saw Harman Baweja close his eyes and canter the last ball of Brett Lee over the ropes in the climax of Victory. I know I had promised not to make another Hrithik Roshan reference but it’s hard to resist when they both star in movies releasing on the same weekend. We’ve always had a soft spot for movies that are set against the backdrop of cricket and hence we made sure we didn’t miss catching victory this past weekend. To back our statement we also claim to have witnessed a dud like ‘Hat-trick‘, a reasonable watch like ‘Jannat‘ and the refreshing ‘Iqbal‘! OK fine, who are we kidding here! Hat-trick was for Nana Patekar, Jannat was to see if Emran would snog the cutesy Sonal Chauhan, and Iqbal was just because it was a Nagesh Kuknoor film. Victory was an excuse to see the refreshingly chirpy Amrita Rao and poke fun on her-man! It must also be noted that we saw ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur‘ only for Ms.Rao and then fell in love with the brilliant meetha marz song.
Now all this blabbering and no talk, the reason being that there wasn’t much
to
talk about
the moviewasn’t much to talk about the movie. What if instead, we told you the story of a boy whose father dreams to see him in the Indian cricket team. He fails to go beyond the regional politics(read Arjun Yadav) and based upon a freak practice session outing get selected for the Ranji team where he scores a double century. Cut to his ODI debut and tonking the likes of Lee and Clark over the ropes scoring consecutive centuries, winning the man-of-the-match and man-of-the-series awards. Overnight starlet of the media, endorsing everything from hair-oil to watches and swinging drunk in clubs. Missing practice sessions leads to the ball crashing into his wickets instead of the ropes as always. Picking up an injury and carrying it through the game till form and health both suffer and then being dropped. You may stop to remind us that we are only narrating the story of spoilt brat Yuvraj Singh. The similarities don’t end there and go on to a pub brawl and even being referred to as prince. So if you haven’t had enough of the ebullient Navjot Sidhu and his contorted phrases, let us get on with things.
How can we forget the man who saw 2050the man who saw 2050, who wonders how the plot that worked for Iqbal failed to click for him. The reason being that the Iqbal underdog story wraps up in an hour and there on we are treated to a regular fare of how fame engulfs Vijay Shekawat and he falls flat on his face. So you have the buildup to the climax where makes a comeback after going under the knife to prove himself to this father. You are almost convinced as it seems believable except for the dames and booze sequence where the moral card comes to play again. The dividing line between an innocent player from a small town and an inebriated star on the phone is a bottle of lager. That translates to arrogance, dip in form, losing matches, expert panelist comments and splashing the headlines. You also have Gulshan Grover remind you of Liz Hurley in Bedazzled as he pawns her-man’s soul for all the riches and his own personal gains. It might come of as a bad comparison for neither he is as sizzling as Ms.Hurley nor he grants seven wishes, but you get the drift.
As for Her-man if his next with magic-boy-gowariker fails to click, he might well vie for the post of the next biggest b-grade superstarthe next biggest b-grade superstar with our Dappan Koothu favorite Jimmy boy. I wonder why all movies with a sporting theme always feature a goody good selfless girlfriend who stands by the hero when he is down, helps him train, regain form, cheers for him as he overcomes his demons and then slips into oblivion. We’ve seen that always and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar being a classic example, and Victory is no different. The sassy Amrita Rao does the needful here and her potrayal of a cute small town girl fits the bill. Brett Lee has maximum screen time apart from the lead pair and boy he looks like a greek god! The closing moments can safely be negated and ignored for you have a heavily bandaged Her-man raining sixers at a run-rate of 20/over. I wonder how much Stuart Clark charged for ridiculing himself and adding insult to injury by letting Her-man canter him for six-sixes in an over. Sadly the movie that begun with a brilliant title sequence featuring kids play cricket in every nook and corner fails to hold ontot he excitement and grinds to a sorry halt after having run out of steam. It is amusing to note that the movie is named after the production house that made it and Victory Pictures sure got some publicity out of this gimmick.
(Image Courtesy: Glamsham.com)
He he is this the Bollywood debut movie for Bret lee. Too bad, he has to play a cricketer. Did he dance to a music or an item number in the pub?
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me: Oh, I so badly wanted him to break into a jig! Sadly, all he has to do is look mean and bowl snorters…
this movie should be banned !!!!!
however loved the fact that he can hit six almost on every ball
should have replaced cricket with chess…..
best cricket movie in my life so far has been….
Iqbal
Lagaan
Great blog though
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me: thnx sunny bhai! It was hilarious in some parts to see him tonk the likes of Murali, Lee etc..
Harman Baweja seriously needs to be given a fair chance to prove himself…..after all amitabh bachan also became the big man he is today after many flops, and wrong choices in movies.
And amrita rao in my opinion is bad actress with a sweet face doing the same small town girl roles in most of her movies – legend of bhagath singh, sajjanpur…eesh!
but nice review on victory…the best part was the dialogue for bhagavan ‘ unse kyun baate kar rahe hai aap babuji? yeh tho behare hain!’
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me: Just admit it that you have a thing for him, and we can close the matter there!
What’s with people and cricket movies? especially *bad* cricket movies?
The only cricket movie I’ve been able to enjoy is chennai 28!
P.s: what’s with guys and amrita rao? I suggest you watch vivah!
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me: what makes you think we haven’t seen that? treacherous movie but she looked like a doll!
i had no intention to watch the movie anyway nd thanks to ur review i’d avoid it even if it was on air..
nicely done.
‘Herman’ can’t judge him coz i haven’t watched LS2050 or this one.. but i sure have seen the trailors to both the movies.. let’s wait & watch if he makes it or is just another ‘flop son’ of the Industry.
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me: Who you calling flop-son? There is a huge void int eh b-grade industry that he has to fill!
you went too soft on the movie. im disappointed
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me: cricket and amrita rao, it’s tough to be hard. I was actually beginning to like it!
Bollywood should make a movie on tennis – based on a top women’s player. We are done with cricket movies.
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me: you just opened a whole new genre!
totally!
namitha in a short skirt bouncing on the clay court!
And when it rains, they won’t run for cover but instead dance to an item number…
Of course in the end she will win the cup!
PS: all puns intended!
I am with Arun. Tennis and girls will make a killer combo. A Sharapova cameo there, a Kournikova cameo here.
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me: think southie, what possibilities!
tennis huh..
boys will be boys…
I see all the usual suspects are dreaming about tennis movies. Am sure one of them will soon find some Mallu actress and tweet about it 😀 and wonder if she’s single.
But then I heard too Victory sucked real bad. How do you manage to watch man!?!
namitha in a short skirt…….win the cup!
ROTFLMAO!
We can have a doubles tennis match as the climax!
Mixed doubles!
where the guy in the opponent team has impregnated Namitha’s sister.
He then asks namitha to throw the match away else her sisters maanam will erify the therivu!
What does she do? Sister’s honour or natnl pride?
Brilliant climax, with 16 cameras and of course bouncing balls!
Both sisters have an elder brother!
Who?
“Thangacheeeee” fame TR!
Sister sentiment without TR is #FAIL
I pity the Bawejas totally! :-/
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me: plenty of wrk in the B-grade industry!
from one Amrita Rao admirer to another… one sincere request… how much screen time does she have in this movie? that is the only thing that may induce me to watch this on a thiruttu CD…
Full Disclosure: Watched Vivah. Twice.
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me: After harman, Brett lee has max screen time. Amrita is only in the songs, but then I watched Vivah as well!
Thank you for saving us from yet another disaster:)
I want detailed review of Delhi 6…will you watch it first day first show?
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me: should watch on the saturday it releases, and review the following sunday
Please accept my humble present – on my blog…
you’ve been awarded…:-)
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me: thnx!
Hey man, last year you had blogged about the campaign to stop Tata’s port in Dhamra from destroying endangered Olive Ridleys. Thanks to the efforts of bloggers just like you, the Tatas are now talking to us. We believe we can win the campaign this year if we get enough of an online buzz going again. We have something big planned. To know how you could help out this time, just email me at nlincoln (at) in (dot) greenpeace (dot) org
Hear from you soon!
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me: thnx for the tipoff
One is often torn between the torture of watching such movies and the pleasure of poking fun at them; fortunately you fill the void well, and give us the best of the two worlds. Nice review
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me: he he, thnx n welcome to this space
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