The last thing anyone expects in an Aamir Khan movie is irony, but depending upon where you watch Dangal, you may have that rare experience. At one point, long after the now-mandatory anthem has been played at the start of the film, the Indian national anthem is played when Geeta Kumari Phogat wins a medal. In the south Delhi auditorium in which this writer saw the film, the bulk of the audience stood up when there was an announcement in the cinema that the Indian national anthem would now be played since Phogat had won. The audience was not quite so prompt for the first anthem, but for the second one, everyone stood up straight (except yours truly). A few even saluted and when the anthem ended, everyone clapped. Was this show of respect for the actor pretending to be a wrestler? Or was it for the anthem that was added in post-production in a thoroughly Bollywood film?
Here’s why this unthinking, Pavlovian display of obedience is particularly ironic. Dangal raises questions about conventions – particularly those about gender – and is the story of how a champion is born as a result of those questions being raised. Based on the real-life grit and determination of Mahavir Singh Phogat, a small-time wrestler who was determined to make champion wrestlers out of his daughters and other girls, Dangal is all about not obeying rules blindly and holding on to your conviction when those in power oppose you.
That Aamir Khan plays the role of Mahavir has angered many in the Twitterverse, resulting in #BoycottDangal becoming the trending hashtag of the hour. Last November, Khan voiced anxieties about whether India is becoming more intolerant. (This was met with furious nationalism from people who were so intent upon criticising Khan for being unpatriotic that they went a fair distance to prove Khan’s concerns were on point.) Those urging the public to #BoycottDangal are of the belief that an actor who isn’t patriotic enough, should not get to play a man as great as Mahavir Phogat. While the hashtag may be trending, love for Bollywood is evidently winning over nationalism because this writer spotted two people tweeting with #BoycottDangal while sitting in the theatre, waiting for intermission to end.
Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, Dangal is exactly what the trailer promised: an earnest but engaging story about a poppet and her poppa. Young Geeta (Zaira Wasim) and Babita (Suhani Bhatnagar) catch their father Mahavir’s (Khan) eye when the two of them pummel two local boys who had flung abuses at them. It quickly becomes a story about Geeta and Mahavir, their relationship and the way the world of wrestling challenges them.
In the film, Mahavir is a national-level champion wrestler who had to give up wrestling because his father told him to be sensible and work at his government job rather than pursue a sporting career. He lives in hope that he will have a son who can be the wrestler Mahavir wanted to be, but his wife delivers daughter after daughter after daughter after daughter.
For much of the film, it’s actually Wasim as the young Geeta who is the star of the film, rather than Khan. She’s not only cute, but also has fantastic swagger and good comic timing. Bhatnagar and even Khan feel like her sidekick. The other standout performance is from Aparshakti Khurrana (brother of Ayushmann) who is actually the film’s narrator and plays the girls’ cousin. The voiceover is an outdated technique, but Khurrana reminds you why so many directors have opted for it. He’s the only one with any sense of humour in the film and when the plot dips in its energy levels occasionally, it’s actually Khurrana’s voiceover that holds it together.
Ostensibly, Khan’s Mahavir is very much the film’s hero. He’s the one resisting convention, officials and even his daughters’ tearful pleas when he takes the steps that he believes are necessary to turn them into champions. Much has been reported about how Khan put on enough weight to have a jiggling belly and there’s nothing wrong with Khan’s performance, but the fact is, you never forget you’re watching Aamir Khan. He doesn’t disappear into Mahavir’s character. Perhaps the most heroic thing Khan does in Dangal, however, is let Wasim and later Fatima Sana Shaikh (she plays the grown up Geeta) enter and stay in the spotlight. Shaikh isn’t quite as charismatic as Wasim, but it’s refreshing to see an actress with something close to the muscular figure that a wrestler has in real life. In contrast to Priyanka Chopra’s painfully-artificial Mary Kom, Shaikh looks like she is an athlete and is good in the fight sequences.
Thanks to the choreography by Arjuna award winner Kripa Shankar Bishnoi, all the fights in Dangal are credible. There are filmi moments, of course. For instance, about 30 minutes into the film, you know which move is going to win Geeta the big fight approximately 95 minutes later. However, Tiwari manages to keep Dangal far more realistic than the average Bollywood film. The last act is made up of a set of wrestling matches and they’re among the most engaging parts of Dangal. People get dirty in ways that aren’t photogenic. Matches are lost. Points are hard-fought. As the actors contort into different holds, you worry for bones snapping and muscles tearing.
Dangal doesn’t have the grit and grime of a Million Dollar Baby, but it’s full paisa vasool. There’s one point in the film when young Geeta Phogat is invited to perform in a dangal (a desi wrestling competition) simply because the organiser figures he can sell more tickets if there’s a girl in a boys’ sport. That’s essentially what powers Dangal as a film – there’s a sense of victory with every step Geeta and Babita take out of the household and on to wrestling maps the world over. Meanwhile, their mother (played by Sakshi Tanwar) stays at home, never travelling to watch her daughters fight, never leaving her home.
Ultimately, you can’t dislike Dangal. If you do, then you’re basically on the side of those who marry off girls at age 14, would like to turn back time by a few centuries, and think Manu Smriti is the way society should be organised. Tiwari and Khan know just when to crank up a little emotion, put in a little tug at the heartstrings. The film touches sweet spots because Mahavir finds reasons to be a proud Indian despite the entire Indian system standing against him.
Considering how unfair society and the social establishment is to Mahavir and his daughters, perhaps it makes sense that some expect audiences to follow orders obediently and make a statement of our patriotism by standing for the national anthem. Because if we all took to raising questions like Mahavir did and making decisions for ourselves the way Geeta does, who knows what we’d do?