’83’ is the sports bio-pic of the year. Going by the trailer it is tactile and flighty without getting over-light in tone. Happily I am glad the focus , going by the trailer, is not only on Kapil Dev who captained India’s historic 1983 victory, but the entire team ,and also om Deepika Padukone, who plays a very endearing Mrs to Kapil.
But the star of the show is clearly Kapil Paaji. I have always found Ranveer Singh to be an exceptional actor. He is clearly an actor who knows how far to imbibe a real-life celebrity’s personality without looking like an impersonation .
I won’t go so far as to say Ranveer IS Kapil—not yet, not on the basis of the trailer alone—but he’s close. The pigkin English is bang-on, just like Ranveer’s Marathi accent in Bajirao Mastani. My favourite moment in the trailer is when Deepika’s Roma corrects her husband when he says the match is “do and(sic) die” for the Indian cricket team.
The trailer is not freed of jingoism—why should it be? and the elements of crowdwooing are very prominently displayed in the trailer. A visit to Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen is turned into a joke which looks quite contrived in an otherwise-believable milieu.
Overall, the trailer is filled with moments of high drama on the field and outside it, though the tone is lowered down to the aesthetics of Kabir Khan. The flag-waving , the euphoria on the team and the locker room tattle are all there, though presented in a tone that is at once buoyant and believable,never over-the-top.
“We here(sic.) to win,” says Kapil at a press conference. Ranveer’s accent wins the World Cup.
