In the latest episode of the podcast, we discuss the recent Bollywood movie 83 – which retells the story of India’s miraculous victory in the 1983 World Cup.
Apple Podcasts
SpotifyNote: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee’s classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India can buy the book on Amazon.
Talking Points:
- A missed opportunity to recreate the cricketing miracle that was 1983
- The conspicuous absence of India’s victory over West Indies at Berbice
- The complete erasure of Mohinder Amarnath’s golden season
- Ranveer Singh and Jiiva – and their game attempt to approximate Kapil Dev and Krishnamachari Srikkanth
- The film not setting the context for the 1983 World Cup
- The lack of a genuine bad guy – which makes the movie search for antagonists
- The factual inaccuracies in the movie – including a big faux pas in the final scene
- The movie explaining scenes way more than showing them through storytelling
- The cinematographic techniques – long-shots combined with close-ups and highlight reels
- The nationalistic tone that runs through the movie
- The Malayalam movie 1983, which takes a completely different approach to recreating the miracle of 1983
- The Indian cricket ecosystem’s inability to create cultural value and works of art
Participants:
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)
Aditya Shrikrishna (@gradwolf)
Anantha (@anantha)
Related:
With Obvious Storytelling, ’83’ Is an Opportunity Lost to Show Underdog India’s Famous WC Victory – Tanul Thakur – The Wire
83 Loses Itself In The Excesses Of Euphoria – Rahul Desai – Film Companion
*
Lead image from here.