Kabir Khan’s ’83 is rousing, overwrought, joyful nostalgia—Bollywood ‘tadka’ doesn’t get better than this

Ranveer Singh brings tremendous rigour and energy to the narrative of '83. And Deepika Padukone’s small role as Romi, Kapil Dev’s wife, is charming. (Image: Screen grab)

If you know what it means to fix wobbly television antennae to get Doordarshan broadcasts to behave and beam cliff-hanger cricket matches on to boxy TV sets of your parents’ drawing rooms, there are moments aplenty in Kabir Khan’s new film ’83 that will transport you to a past when choices and instant gratification were scarce. I relived that moment with utter relish, watching a Hindi film in the theatre after two years: At age 9, in the summer of 1983, I sat huddled with at least 20 others on a cool stone floor at a neighbour’s home, eyes glued to their Weston TV set, as the Indian cricket team led by Kapil Dev made its way to a thrilling World Cup Cricket final win. Intermittent electricity supply and choppy broadcast signals weren’t deterrents to our pursuit of the thrill, to revel in the thumping heartbeats—India had to win this, our first ever World Cup final. Indian cricket changed irrevocably that day.

’83 reaches the climactic sequence of the win in more than two hours of its running time, and yet there are hardly moments in the film that feel languid. The appeal of ’83 is much more than nostalgia. It is a sports film that respects the sport it is about, and the human energy and pluck that makes a sport compelling.

Also read: Meet the man who helped Ranveer Singh nail Kapil Dev's look in movie 83

Khan’s best work so far, it is similar to his earlier blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) in that both films strip ideas of nationalism and patriotism entirely of their shadows and nuances, and feed our deeply conditioned appetite for “Bollywood masala” inexorably—as if there’s no bigger joy in a movie theatre than when we suspend disbelief willingly and go along for the ride. But ’83 is a much more easily digestible film than Bajrangi Bhaijaan. It is a convincing maturing of the star-driven, big-scale idiom that Khan has mastered over the years. It differs from Bajrangi Bhaijaan in many ways, the most important being the narrative is a recreation of a real sporting moment which Khan has himself witnessed in his lifetime.

We meet the Indian team’s manager Ram Singh (Pankaj Tripathi) as he leaves for England with a few members of the team to unite with Captain Kapil Dev (Ranveer Singh) and the rest of the team for the World Cup tournament. In terms of public perception, government support and morale, there is nothing going for the Indian team. The inherent underdog drama is already rife in the story.

Khan and his team (including Sumit Arora, Vasan Bala, Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan as co-writers; and Aseem Mishra as cinematographer) propel the narrative keeping in mind the audience knows what the climax is, through homely, pan-India humour, plotting just for the sake of building momentum, signature broad strokes to each character in the winning team, and some preposterously exaggerated examples of cricket’s potential to unify divisive forces of communalism and facilitate cross-border military salvo. By using archival footage at the right moments, balancing the rising tempo with a lightness, keeping the cricket as real as possible, Khan creates a movie experience that’s just what Box Office India needs at this moment.

Also read: 83 Actor Adinath Kothare: 'Seeing the Original World Cup Trophy Was Most Unforgettable Moment'

The inspired casting is the winning auxiliary. In the lead role as Kapil Dev, Ranveer Singh brings tremendously immersive rigour and energy to the narrative—as captain, teammate and a man, Kapil Dev represents a masculinity steeped in physicality, earthy wisdom and endearing provinciality. Singh gets the Haryanvi grain of the real-life captain pat—in mannerisms and body language, he stays in character till the last whack at the seams of the cricket ball at Lord’s.

Deepika Padukone’s small role as Romi, Kapil Dev’s wife, is charming. Jiiva as Krishnamachari Shrikkanth, Saqib Saleem as Mohinder Amarnath, Jatin Sarna as Yashpal Sharma and Nishant Dahiya as Roger Binny stand out in the ensemble cast despite limited character arcs. As the manager, invested in the team’s fortunes, and attuned to the dance of free will and choices in midwifing a collective moment for a team and a country, Tripathi inhabits the role with a deadpan humour and quiet, earthly wisdom without any obvious acting tricks—yet another achievement in the career of this versatile and instinctive actor.

Unlike other cricket movies like, say, M.S. Dhoni - The Untold Story (2016), Khan is attentive to replicating details of the game with accuracy and authenticity, and he portrays the mighty West Indies cricketers, India’s fierce challengers in that tournament, with a heartwarming combination of magnetism, dignity and humour. Viv Richards doesn’t just chew gum or flick his bat with gifted timing; he oozes power and charisma with a look and a half-smile.

In some scenes, Khan’s enthusiasm to create meaning out of this historic win takes him way over the pavilion into shaky, desultory territory about patriotism and the perverse limits of a national obsession. He is a bit too invested in making this win about something bigger than just a sporting victory. But all the overreaching and oversimplification are not only tolerable, they are ultimately dismissible because ’83 is a zippy rush of a film—it’s a like a tequila shot consumed with a gang of friends who you had your first ever tequila shot with. You don’t care about the aftertaste or aftermath of that shot is—the shot and its giddy accompanying warmth are all that matters.

Also read: '83: Ranveer Singh’s Kapil’s Devils in a joyful celebration of a religion called cricket