Movie Review : Azhar

Director Tony D’Souza’s latest film is inspired by former Indian cricket team captain Mohammad Azharuddin’s life. However, a long disclaimer at the beginning of the film mentions that it is purely made for the purpose of entertainment, and claims that Azhar isn’t a true representation of what happened in the former Indian captain’s life and that cinematic liberties have been excercised.

Azharuddin was a revered cricketer and the captain of Indian team, before he was banned from playing after he was accused of being part of a match fixing scandal in 2000. The film mainly focuses on his journey and struggle after the ban till eight years later he was given the clean chit.

After watching Azhar, a viewer doesn’t return home with a better understanding of one of the biggest sporting scandals that rocked India in 2000. Episodes from his life have been plucked and randomly tweaked to make it a sanitised drama that has no particular direction.

The film would have benefitted greatly if all that effort had gone into making its dialogues less corny. The supporting cast of Azhar, the other cricketers who were captained by Azharaddin such as TV star Gautam Gulati as the real-life cricketer Ravi Shastri and Manjot Singh as cricketer Navjot Singh Siddhu, were reduced to glorified side-kicks.