A ball is dribbled, each thud echoing across the court, as the player makes their way to the basket. The audience leans forward in anticipation — are they going to make the shot or not? The same intensity and anticipation can be found both at a basketball game, and in the rows of a theatre while watching a sports film. Sports and film have so much in common, they’re both entertainers that attract viewers and create fandoms. So, it makes sense that one of the most popular genres of film is the sports movie. But at the same time, there’s something hypocritical about the sports film — the vigour and excitement of sports lie in not knowing the outcome. How is it that these formulaic sports films are still able to attract the kind of attention that live sports broadcasts do? How close do these films get to depicting the real sports experience? To simplify, let’s take the example of Chak De! India – probably India’s quintessential sports film. Social media screamed that the women’s hockey team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was no less than Kabir Khan’s team from Chak De! India, showing how a fictional example can be influential enough to affect people’s perceptions of the reality of sports. However, the glorious representations of sports in films often blind the world to appreciating the blood, sweat and tears that go into mastering the sport. Chak De! India successfully highlighted the stereotypes surrounding women in sports coming from Indian households and how they are looked down upon in the game. The closest to the truth that the film got was by representing the players’ struggles, and finding strength from something common – their love for hockey. The film 83, on the other hand, is a real-life account of the Indian cricket team’s World Cup winning campaign in 1983 and like Chak de! India, it does a good job covering individual stories and creating a sense of team spirit. It was a good example of representing sports in film with a reasonable degree of accuracy. And Dangal makes a film out of a relatively underrated sport in India – women’s wrestling. The film has the best of both worlds; the emotions surrounding the game and social commentary on the participation of women in the game, along with the technicalities. But, truth be told, the film didn’t create much awareness regarding the funding and incentive issues for wrestling in India. Indian wrestlers still struggle to win big matches to grab the attention of the government and media to secure better sponsorship and funding to keep playing the game. All in all, sports film as a genre sometimes sacrifices on the technicality and the accuracy to heighten the drama, and cater to all kinds of audiences. However, by using the power of cinema, filmmakers can delve more deeply into the true situation of these sports, and ignite a change in the world of sports.
10 Apr 2022
Shruti Menon and Purnima Priyadarshini
