Ajay Devgan and team scores a GOAL at the football. Review on Maidaan

Some stories need to be told, some stories need to be watched and some characters need to be remembered.

Maidaan is such a story which celebrates the golden age of Indian football and remembers the life of the great Indian football team coach Syed Abdul Rahim.

Amit Ravindernath Sharma’s sports drama works both as a sports film as well as a biopic of the forgotten hero of Indian football-Rahim Saab.

This is a tale which most of us were kind of unaware of and I am glad that someone brought up this story on the big screen.

The film stands strong on the brave shoulders of Ajay Devgan, who again shows his class in such intense roles.

Though he looks very different from the real Rahim Saab and doesn’t get the right Hyderabadi lingo, yet Devgan gels so well in the character that the physical difference hardly matters.

Gajraj Rao as the negative sports journalist again gets a plum assignment after Sharma’s Badhai Ho. Priyamani, after The Family man and Jawaan is totally comfortable in another big Hindi film.

The rest of the actors are rather not well known in Bollywood but all do a good job. Hats off to the casting team and makers as the actors match the real-life characters very well(this one realizes when we see the original pics of the football legends in the end credits).

The film along with Rahim does justice to the legendary players- P.K. Banerjee, Peter Thangaraj, Jarnail Singh, Chuni Goswami and Tulsidas Balram apart from Rahim’s son Syed Hakim ji. The film has production values are great, decent music by A.R. Rahman and great camera work. The film brings lot of Deja vu moments with other great sports films like Hip Hip Hurray and Chak De India in Bollywood and Escape to Victory in Hollywood. Maidaan unlike Chak de and others is rather a slow burner and takes time to build up and it is towards the climax where the film reaches a thrilling high.No wonder after a slow opening, the film is getting family audience due to good reviews.

The makers have done a lot of research on the film and have also given hints about the socio-political events of those years. The film however stands tall for its story, direction, Ajay Devgan and amazing soccer scenes choreography. Maidaan was stuck for release for years after completion and the makers-Zee Studio, Boney Kapoor had to wait a lot till it was finally released. The climax shows a couple of the legends who were alive till a few years ago but passed away before the film could be released. I am sure after watching the film, audience will remember them along with the real Syed Abdul Rahim Saab!