 Nagesh
Kukunoor has finally landed that almost perfect
ball, it may not be Shane Warne’s ball of
the century, but with Iqbal he seems
to have figured out his line and length moving
at last out of his amateur, almost home video
style of filmmaking on to do what he had given
up his lucrative software career in the United
States for - making decent films. While it’s
true that Kukunoor has picked a topic that won
more than half the battle for him i.e. a handicapped
person realising his dream – the triumph
of the human spirit and the sport he picked was
cricket, a comfort zone for almost all of the
country, it would be grossly unfair to say that
this alone helped the film be the little gem that
it is.
The film is about the struggle of a deaf and
dumb boy who dreams of nothing less than wearing
the premier fast bowler of the country one day,
a jaded and faded cricketer who has been given
a chance to redeem himself, a young girl who sees
the same dreams her brother does, a mother who
is willing to go to any length to help her son
realize his dream, a father who cannot understand
his sons passion and the upholders of a system
that has helped ruin many a promising cricket
career.
The script is almost flawless and has some wonderfully
written dialogues. The stilted writing that has
become a trademark with offbeat cinema is thankfully
missing almost in totality. The humorous moments
in the film are genuinely funny and the only bad
joke in the film is even apologized for. The film
actually builds itself up rather well from an
admittedly terrible opening five minutes to an
exhilarating last five. If the script lacks in
any area it is the absolutely convenient resolution
to the ‘fixing’ problem at the end,
too convenient and too, too naïve and simplistic,
in fact.
What makes this film rise above the trappings
of the small budget film are the truly amazing
performances. This truly is an ensemble of actors,
each outperforming the other and yet at no point
is any of them out performed. All credit to Nagesh
Kukunoor for actually directing scenes where actors
when not delivering dialogues don’t look
awkward and out of sorts. Naseeruddin Shah is
brilliant as Mohit, the ex-cricketer and village
drunk, but one has come to expect such performances
from him and it doesn’t really surprise
you.. Shreyas Talpade as Iqbal played
the underdog to the hilt, a role that could have
been ruined by overt gesticulation and ridiculous
facial movements, a la Rani Mukherjee in Black,
but the boy has it down pat and hence you have
a character that you not only sympathize with
but also believe is true. However, the star of
the film though is Iqbal’s sister
played by Shweta Prasad.  She
steals your heart from the moment she comes on
to the very end. This is truly a noteworthy performance
and unless we have a repeat of the National award
sham of this year – we have a winner of
the best actress category already. All the supporting
roles are wonderfully played, with everyone getting
into their character rather than vying for screen
space and attention. But the most wonderful thing
about the casting is that for the first time Nagesh
Kukunoor thought wiser about casting himself.
On the technical side, Cinematographer, Sudeep
Chatterjee has attempted to move away from the
trappings of commercial Hindi cinema, but still
relied rather too heavily on the crane and the
unnecessary top angle at times unnecessarily inviting
attention to the camera. But otherwise he is able
to prove that be it the stylish Road
or the big Hindi commercial Film – Lucky
or now Iqbal, he is a cinematographer
quite in tune to the needs of a film whatever
its genre.
One area that needed a little more attention
is the background score. Music Directors Saleem-Sulaiman
are much too direct and in your face  taking
away from the narrative. They should try and stop
announcing impending situations with their music.
Yes, they may have watched the film countless
times when penning the score, but they should
realise that the audience is actually watching
it for the first time. The songs though are well
integrated into the film and rather soulfully
rendered by KK.
Iqbal may never become a classic, or go down
in the annals of Hindi cinema as an all-time great,
but there is no denying it is a wonderfully crafted
piece of work. With Iqbal, one can actually forgive
Nagesh Kukunoor for all his previous excursions
into the world of filmmaking. One only hopes that
the good reviews the film has been generating
helps it to be seen by more people because finally
after a long time we have a film that deserves
to be seen. Kudos also to producer Subhash Ghai
in producing this film. One hopes this leads to
some sensitive and sensible films coming out of
the Mukta films stable now.
Abraham Cherian is a freelance advertisement
and corporate filmmaker based in Mumbai.
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