The promise of 83… and the eventual disappointment

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The promise of 83… and the eventual disappointment
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In the latest episode of the podcast, we discuss the recent Bollywood movie 83 – which retells the story of India’s miraculous victory in the 1983 World Cup.

Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee’s classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India can buy the book on Amazon.

Talking Points:

  • A missed opportunity to recreate the cricketing miracle that was 1983
  • The conspicuous absence of India’s victory over West Indies at Berbice
  • The complete erasure of Mohinder Amarnath’s golden season
  • Ranveer Singh and Jiiva – and their game attempt to approximate Kapil Dev and Krishnamachari Srikkanth
  • The film not setting the context for the 1983 World Cup
  • The lack of a genuine bad guy – which makes the movie search for antagonists
  • The factual inaccuracies in the movie – including a big faux pas in the final scene
  • The movie explaining scenes way more than showing them through storytelling
  • The cinematographic techniques – long-shots combined with close-ups and highlight reels
  • The nationalistic tone that runs through the movie
  • The Malayalam movie 1983, which takes a completely different approach to recreating the miracle of 1983
  • The Indian cricket ecosystem’s inability to create cultural value and works of art

Participants:

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Aditya Shrikrishna (@gradwolf)

Anantha (@anantha)

Related:

With Obvious Storytelling, ’83’ Is an Opportunity Lost to Show Underdog India’s Famous WC Victory – Tanul Thakur – The Wire

83 Loses Itself In The Excesses Of Euphoria – Rahul Desai – Film Companion

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Lead image from here.


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