God’s Dream: to be remembered as a good man

Gwalior, 24th Feb, 2010

India V/s South Africa

Scoreboard flashed: 200* in 147 Balls

First Man in the ODI History, Billions were watching around the World. Live feeds were reaching every corner of the millions of home via Television sets, every corner of the streets flooded with ball by ball updates via different kinds of Radio devices.

 

Suddenly the entire Stadium filled with the Voice of Ravi Shastri – “Gets it! First man on the planet to reach 200 in ODI. And it’s the Superman from India.”

 

Yes, we have seen a Superhero. And he lives amongst us, known by many names, but he is the Mythical Hero of the Indian cricket, who sketched his own era with his golden arm. Achieved so many accolades, probably anyone could ever imagine in his dreams.

 

Sachin

Sachin…

 

Sachin

Sachin…

 

The roars never die down. It is still alive. It still echoes in our eardrums. As if we heard it just a minute before. He was attached with our emotions, blood, sweats, tears and prayers. He still runs in our veins. More than a quarter of a century we have lived with his name. It has a magical spell of its own. Only it can stops time. It gives us Goosebumps like a National Anthem does every time. It still binds us in a one nation. It reminds us we are the worshipers of a single religion – I”f Cricket is a religion, then Sachin is our God”. Our beloved God.

“Sachin: A Billion Dreams” is not a movie, it’s a documentary on the life of Cricket Legend Sachin Tendulkar, directed by veteran sports documentary director James Erskine, released worldwide on 26thMy, 2017.  It’s a unspoken journal of the entire nation, specially for the 90’s Kids who made a bond with his name, who grew up watching Sachin’s mythical cricket career. Every bit of the story we know, but yet we want to watch it, hear it time after time. It never gets old. Why we read sports pages in today’s newspaper after watching the match on Television yesterday? Because we want to relish how others praised our favorite hero. Same with this movie, nothing new, but crowd puller. People skipped their early morning sleep to watch First Day First Show. 9 A.M., the hall was nearly houseful. During the entire movie, crowd was screaming loud and clear “Sachin Sachin… Sachin Sachin…”, transforming the auditorium like a Cricket Stadium, as if watching Live Matches. Goosebumps were visible…

It is hard to picturize the life of a man when it is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. When it is documentary, it is tougher. Some old photos were shown to make us familiar with the time Sachin was born, followed by childhood which is picturized and then entire later part is based on present day interviews and numerous video footages (including old Interviews & footage of the matches), courtesy of Sony Pictures. There are two well knowed personality of the cricket fraternity Harsha Bhogle and Boria Majumder who narrated the story during the journey to the memory lane.

But 139 minutes is not enough to narrate the deeds and accolades of Sachin Tendulkar. There were so many events Director could show us, like the famous incident, Peter Roebuck described once about his journey towards Mangalore from Shimla when a train stopped in a Station for a minute because Sachin was batting on 98 and people wanted to see his hundred. Or who can forget Sachin’s love for formula one. Or how Anjali sneaked into Sachin’s house for the first time. The documentary could have covered the entire retirement speech of Sachin Tendulkar.

If “Playing it My WAY!”, An semi-autobiography written by Sachin Tendulkar and Boria Majumder, was the manifesto about Greg Chappel and how he tried to destroy Indian Cricket, then “Sachin: A Billion Dreams” will be remembered for Criticizing Md. Azharuddin. From Doordarshan to Cable Connections to Dish Connections; From Old TV Sets to Flat TV Sets to LCD to LED Screens; we have witnessed a lot while watching Sachin play. A boy transformed into a Legend and a Legend transformed into a God while he was busy creating billion dreams into reality. But he wants us to remember him as a good man.

 

Media Express Rating: 8/10

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