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lloyd-sharma
Reviews
Warnie (2023)
Meh. Could have been better.
The problem with this, biopics in general, is they try to cover someone's life in 1.5 - 2 hours. That is impossible.
When you think of Shane Warne, you think of his grit and determination. His ability to motivate his team mates to win! It would have been amazing to understand this aspect of his life more than anything else.
Alex Williams was good as Warnie, but I hope he would have taken the time to do at least a passable impression of Warnie's action.
In general, the series didn't capture the charisma and grit of Warne.
Ps. Casting call for Sachin: get the first indian bloke you see. OMG!
83 (2021)
Oh boy. Where do I start.
Ever since I saw the YouTube video of the movie being announced, and the first 7 mins of Kris Srikanth being hilarious, my first thought was: They will not be able to capture any of the spontaneity and human emotion of the 'people'/cricketers that went through the 83' world cup.
I couldn't go to the theatres for the movie (which in hindsight is a good thing) and so the day (nay the minute) it dropped on Netflix, I hit play.
And boy were all my expectations met!
- The movie followed every single character trope for Hindi language sports biopics. Cringe worth scenes, cliche after cliche and very poor chemistry.
- If you watch the (almost 1 hour 20 min) launch video on YouTube, you can still see the bond and the respect that the players shared for Kapil Dev. None of that was evident when you saw this movie. Also, if you watch the entire video, you will realise that a good chunk of the anecdotes and dialogue for the movie were directly lifted from those interviews.
- Anyone can Google scores or head to ESPN Cricinfo or YouTube to watch highlights of the matches. I think what I look for in these sports biopics is understanding what happen from the perspective of the people that went through the 83 world cup. That was lacking in the movie.
- Good makeup artist can make the cast look like the people that they were portraying, but you need to forget about the looks and go on a journey with the characters in the first 10 mins of the movie.
- The most cringeworthy moment in the whole thing was 'Sachin' being called to watch the final at the match. At that time, this was like a car crash -- you dont wanna watch but you cant look away.
- Bodyline was a miniseries that was shot and released in 1984. That captured more of the emotion and sentiment better than this movie.
- I would have been much happier to have a documentary film made by a good Director vs having a commercial movie made about the 83 world cup OR a character study of the world cup from Kapil Dev's perspective OR how in spite of the turmoil between the board, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev India still won the world cup.
- Ranveer Singh was such a disappointment as well! And please don't ever cast Deepika Padukone in another role that requires her to act :)
The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team (2020)
Okay to watch, but obviously biased.
The rating of 2 is because this docu series was about cricket -- which I love and I can watch anything that is cricket related!
There are a few things that I think could have done better in the series:
1. All opponents were highlighted as the 'evil' ones. Virat Kohli is one of the best players in the world and was highlights as this 'bad boy' of World Cricket, nasty and brash all the time. But his sportsmanship of backing his fellow cricketer Steve Smith at the world cup wasn't even featured in the package.
2. The series brushed over what happened in Cape Town in the first 2 mins of the first episode. I feel that there should have been at least an episode chronicling the rise of Australia in the early 2000s with Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting and then the downward spiral of the team under Michael Clarke and Steve Smith who took the team in a direction where they became one of the the most hated teams in world cricket.
3. Justin Langer being himself was maybe the highlight of the show -- his approach to cricket, coaching and life should have been more highlighted.
4. Overall, the show was definitely green-lit to make good on the Australian Cricket Team's image. Its definitely an interesting watch because I think its the first time that we are seeing an inside look at the workings of an international cricket team so closely. The access to the dressing rooms on game day during a particularly great to see.
5. Overall The rating of 2 is because of Cricket, but there could have been a much better deep dive into what happen, why did it happen and what was the outcome.