I reopen my blog after a rather long break. I start with my take on the OTT channels that are demanding our eyeballs from all across the net. I have named it WHATSONOTT after a popular app.
We
start with a recent addition. The film Maidaan. Featuring one of the most visible faces on screen. Ajay
Devgn. The story is from the history of Indian football from which we continue
to learn nothing. And casually forget
the inspiring men who took India to the top of Asian Football where we could
never reach again to this day. In the
face of staunch opposition. From some of us Indians only. We remember headlines
from a foggy memory to say “yeah yeah. The 60s Asian Games Gold. But that was
so long ago. Since then we are going down only.” But then we forget our
country's history too! Big results are the outcome of long, hard efforts and a
planned pursuit of the goal.
The 1962 gold medal was made possible by the vision of one man and his dogged pursuit for more than a decade. His toil, leadership, talent spotting ability and strategy building. And courage. Facing back biting, neglect insult and enmity that comes with it. He was Syed Abdul Rahim. Maidaan is his story.
I was in school in the 60s. Football dominated the Sports pages of vernacular dailies and radio commentaries. It was mostly local. Cricket came in the winter months only in its Test avatar. And when there was an international cricket tour of India. Heroes like Jaiseema, Patoudi, Farokh Engineer and Salim Durani were reserved for those times. The occasional Indian cricket wins were not sufficient to garner yearlong interest.
Quarter
page photographs of Chuni Goswami, P K Banerjee, Balaram and Peter
Thongoraj in action, Bengali commentary
of Ajayda and Kamalda telling us about a thikana lekha pass (an accurate pass) just rocked.
Brazil, Latin American football was read about. You read about Pele, Eusebio
and Lev Yasin the Russian Goalkeeper. More enthusiastic classmates would speak
of Czech and Hungarian football, Cruyiff and Puskas. But East Bengal Mohun
Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting dominated our world of sports.
Chuni
Goswami’s flamboyance was as famous as his swerving free kicks. We heard and
saw Beckham bending them much much later. And this era is brought to life in Maidaan. The Raj Era buildings, trams
trundling down the green maidan, the laid back life, children playing football
in the mud, big black umbrellas and our childhood heroes winning on celluloid.
Football matches were brought alive by shots and sounds of
a football landing in the mud so you would feel the splash, tearing the net
with the power of a kick, bare feet with only anklets struggling to stop foreign boots.
The ferocity of the matches confronts us. Even if we know
the outcome, the grit of the players comes through. Chuni’s free kick swerving
past the wall into the South Korean goal makes us yearn for an action replay
from all different angles. And the one man behind it all, who had to convince
everyone, even the Prime Minister, to send a football team to Jakarta with an
assurance of a gold medal. He knew it was his swan song.
So it was for Indian football too!
Maidaan is playing on Prime video. Watch it. I felt the National flag going up and the
national anthem playing.
