The trailer of Reema Kagti’s big Independence Day sports film finds Akshay Kumar doing what he likes best: pitching for country and flag. There is a loud jingoistic feel to the trailer, as though the director has let all systems go into creating a feverish pitch as hockey takes centre stage once again.
Let me say at the outset that Gold looks nothing like Shimit Amin’s hockey film Chak De. The two films are as dissimilar as Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar. Akshay with a Bengali accent that Uttam Kumar would have envied plays the captain of India’s first post-Independence hockey team and he wants nothing less than the Gold from the Olympics. “The King will watch as we take away the gold,” he dreamily announces to Vineet Mishra (the actor who was last seen trying to become a boxer in Mukkabaaz) who is reluctant join the team. Aren’t they all!
The team, if you must know, looks dependable and appealing, what with Kunal Kapoor philosophizing how in life as in hockey, you sometimes just need to let the ball go. Not this time, buddy. Reema Kagti’s Gold has ‘winner’ written on every frame. The trailer screams for attention as patriotic sounds merge into visuals of the furling-unfurling flag. It’s all done in the spirit of a gamely night of nationalistic fervour, filled with sounds and visuals that are meant to suck us into its seductive nationalism.
WATCH THE TRAILER-
It works most of the way. Mouni Roy the very beautiful television actress, is seen as Akshay’s bullying wife who literally pushes aside his Olympian dreams and later is seen praying for her husband’s victory. Akshay loves to be bullied by his screen wives (see Jolly LLB 2, Toliet Ek Prem Katha, Padman, etc). Mouni seems to wear the pants in this relationship too. Akshay happily lets her.
Gold has a warm rugged feel to it, as though the spirit of nostalgia and sportsmanship that rule the theme are pre-conditions for a sincere film on winning against all odds. The ‘formula’ cannot stop working as long as the filmmaker uses it to tell an inspiring story. Gold will hit pay-dirt.
inspired by true events, Gold captures India’s first Olympic Games’ win as a free country in hockey. India had just become independent when the Olympic Games were being hosted in England in 1948. India defeated its former colonial masters on their very soil and the pull of the story is obvious. Sharing the trailer, Akshay wrote, “Winners under British India, Legends under Free India. Witness the golden era of Indian Hockey through #Gold.”
Akshay Kumar, in an interview to a leading daily, also pointed out a coincidence, “Gold releases on August 15 and on August 12 is the 70th anniversary of India’s first gold medal as a free country at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London. The release couldn’t have been planned better. It’s a matter of pride that while we celebrate the 70th anniversary of one of our first biggest victories on foreign soil in hockey, we will also host the Hockey World Cup. As for the sport getting its due, I think this was long overdue.”
Talking about the film, producer Ritesh Sidhwani had earlier told PTI, “It is not a biopic. It is a completely fictional story but it is set against a real backdrop between 1933-48 India about what the country was, the sports... about hockey. It is not based on any character.”
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