Movie: Sachin -A Billion Dreams Rating: ★★★1/2 Genres: Biography Censor: U Duration: 140 min. Studio/presenter: 200 Not Out, Carnival Motion Pictures Producer(s): Ravi Bhagchandka, Shrikant Bhasi Director: James Erskine Cinematography (DOP): Chris Openshaw Screenplay: Sivakumar Ananth Music: A. R. Rahman Cast: Sachin Tendulkar, Arjun Tendulkar, Mayuresh Pem, Ajit Tendulkar, Anjali Tendulkar, Sara Tendulkar Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

‘Cricket is our religion and Sachin is our God.’ We have heard this quote from millions of cricket lovers across our country for more than two decades, when Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar used to display his master strokes, while facing all the top bowlers from different cricket countries in this world.  Indeed, Sachin won the hearts of millions of cricket lovers not only in India, but also abroad. Even today, after his retirement we notice the stadium spectators calling his name ‘Sachinnnn..Sachinnn’ whenever they notice him in stadium, during the IPL matches.

Now, producers Ravi Bhagchandka and Carnival Motion Pictures under 200 NotOut Productions have offered a Indian Biographical film on Sachin, suitably titled ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’, which is directed by James Erskine. The film begins to show the childhood memories of Sachin, his proper upbringing and how he matured early with a disciplined life, because of his love for cricket. Though all these scenes are shot with other artistes, we soon notice Sachin, his wife Anjali  and all his family members joining in to recall their memories of the past. The Kind of respect Sachin had for his parents and his elder brothers Nitin and Ajit, is clearly noticed in few emotion filled scenes.

The film’s screenplay then captures the attention of the audience, covering all his memorable  innings, including his debut in Test Cricket on Pakistan Tour. What was more interesting were the comments from all those bowlers from rival countries, whom Sachin faced confidently, during his cricketing career. So, you get to see Wasim Akram, Shane Warne and others talking good about his batting skills. In this film, we also notice his ups and downs, including his memorable innings including the World Cup win in 2011 and at the same time the most shameful incidence of abandoning the semi finals match against Sri Lanka in the World Cup, due to unruly crowd behavior, setting the part of stadium on fire, to display their anger on poor performance by Indian team.

In some of the scenes, Sachin is shown speaking through his heart, about being deeply hurt, after removing him as captain, without informing him. Later, after making a comeback, we notice him reacting to lack of team work from senior players. His modesty is noticed when he refuses to comment on match fixers, stating that he didn’t knew anything about it, as he had no proof. Besides watching stalwarts from Cricket like Bradman and others praising his technique, we find Viv Richards calling him at a time, when he was almost on the verge of announcing his retirement. Those encouraging words from his idol, enabled him to make a comeback and create new records. Those few words in praise of Sachin uttered by Yuvraj Singh, after winning 2011 world cup, captures the attention of audience. Many other cricketers, past and present have spoken good not only about his quality batting , but also his humble nature. Prominent among them were, M.S.Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh and others.

The film has cleverly captured Sachin’s emotion filled farewell speech, after his last match in Mumbai, which makes the audience to shed tears in the concluding part. Background music of this film by A.R.Rehman is superb cinematography by Chris Openshaw are the other plus points of this film. For cricket lovers, this film is a real treat and for Sachin fans it’s a big gift from their idol . It will not be surprising to find youngsters turning up in large numbers at cinema theatres across the country, to watch their hero in this film.