'83 (2021) User Reviews

More docu-drama than straight up historical biopic

[Jithindurden · 7/10 · 22 March 2022]

Usually, sports films focus on the dramatic story surrounding the actual sports to make the story more interesting for a film. When it comes to Bollywood there would be a whole lot more drama and nationalism added to make it a commercial entertainer. But what 83 does is, it made a film completely around the actual sports event and made everything surrounding it the filler contents that offers comedy and a few other commercial elements. This is the good thing and the bad thing about this film at the same time.

The movie is made in such a way that anyone who is not too familiar with cricket is not gonna enjoy this movie at all. On top of that, the filler content in between the sports highlights is more than often overdramatic, which can put off the aforementioned audience easily.

But for people who have grown up with cricket, especially those who watched the 1983 Cricket world cup live and those who grew up listening to that story, this will be a very entertaining watch. Right from the casting of each member of the team, they made a splendid job. Whenever they cut from a match to the TV screen showing the actual matches that happened in 1983, the casting and the attention to detail in making each shot perfect made it a smooth transition where you barely notice the change between the actors and the real-life players.

The casting, the cricket matches, each and every ball and shot, the mannerism and personalities of each team member have all been captured perfectly. To top that off, the small cameos of the real players, the inclusion of other so-called easter eggs all made it wholesome.

This is a very flawed film that leans closer to docu-fiction rather than just a historical biopic. So those who expect more than that may get disappointed.

Good sports picture

[kathiravanvj · 7/10 · 26 December 2021]

The team has brought the 83 cricket word cup matches to the big screens. Everyone knows what happened on 1983 but the screenplay making and acting made the movie enjoyable and interesting.

Aspiration, blood, sweat and achievement

[msunando · 7/10 · 25 December 2021]

25th June 1983 is etched in the heart and mind of every Indian alive - it was the day of reckoning for Indian cricket, and I don't think that I shall be much wrong in claiming that this achievement turned the game into a cult in India. Written off by one and all as underdogs who had never won a World Cup cricket match except having beaten East Africa in one of the matches in the previous two versions, no one had any expectations from India. But the victory and the subsequent photos emerging from Lords with Kapil Dev receiving the much coveted trophy and holding it high with the team, gave a new dimension and pillar to the national pride. The game still belonged to gentlemen those days, and the exuberance of the achievement was a muted, dignified and graceful celebration, without the chest beating and physically expressive stuff we have gotten used to seeing now.

So when director Kabir Khan announced 83, the expectations from the movie soared. 83 is therefore saddled, whether Khan likes it or not, a billion different objectives, views, opinions, desires and elements of national pride that varies widely. For some, it's the players, and for others it would be the team, spirit, character, grit, emotions, and the list is endless. The story has a foregone conclusion and hence Kabir Khan was entrusted to give the victory a dimension that's perhaps hitherto unknown to our generation and beyond. The good news is that he succeeds partially with it for the audience that lived the occasion, but scores hugely for Gen Y, the millennials and Gen Z, to whom 83 is a story of pride rising from the ashes, it's Phoenix all the way. We shall be contented with your swashbuckling presentation of the subject, Kabir Khan.

But critically speaking, 83 is far from Kabir Khan's legacy of films, and I cannot help comparing it to Shimit Amin's "Chak De India". Of course, the latter was a fictional story and Amin had the whole canvas to paint on, whilst 83 perhaps tied Khan's hands to a great extent with reality where creativity is concerned. Hard as he may have tried, it's very difficult to take Ranveer Singh out of Ranveer Singh and Kapil Dev has a lot of the actor infused into his character. The rest of the team is a whole lot of talented actors, but Khan didn't have too much meat for them. I thought the emotional journey of Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Sandeep Patil, Ravi Shastri, Sandhu, Valson and others also deserved a place, but then one can perhaps argue that 83 in that case would have become a miniseries and not a film. I agree. The music isn't inspiring and I didn't bring back any of the songs. Cricket wasn't technically great - too much focus on the ground banter, clichéd shot making techniques and stock clips of fielding (read players slumping on the ground failing to stop boundaries) make the game uninspiring.

But what I brought back home is what Sandhu said after his engagement had broken off by his fiancee due to his small home and paltry earnings - he compared himself to engineers and doctors and felt inferior. That was 83! Forty years later, tge present Indian cricket players can roll on the floor laughing at that economic plight. Oh cricket! How you've turned things on the head!

Ignore the bad reviews

[findmuralli · 9/10 · 25 December 2021]

For those who have lived through the 83 times, it will be a memorable reminder of what the feelings were in India at that time. For those who were born just within the decade of 83 it will serve as a showcase for the events that we have heard off and the legends that we have seen. For the kids and teenagers who are following the cricket of today, this movie shows how the game became a second nature to most Indians and how the glamorous game was once a pale event.

Every generation has something to take away from the movie. Yes, it could have been better, but given the fact that it is coming from a director and a production house which wanted to make a mass-entertainer, it has done a great job.

Ranveer almost becomes Kapi Dev and you won't remember him any other way towards the end of the movie. The rest of the cast has also done a superb job with Jeeva, Pankaj and Hardy taking easily the attention away. The game itself has been shot brilliantly. If you are lucky to be among a jubilant crowd in the theater it will be a much exhilarating experience.

Go watch! Ignore the negative reviews. This story needs to be told for the current generation.

Typical sports drama and it works!!

[sriramthestranger · 9/10 · 23 January 2022]

The movie is the experience of the 1983 Cricket World Cup winning team. The good thing is none of the characters are vilified for the sake of 'antagonist' and everything is represented in the realms of Sports Drama. There are moments that make it emotional and make you cry. Kabir Khan and Ranveer Singh have pulled off a fantastic magic here. Do watch in theatres!!

you disappointed a cricket fan here

[magadalwarmayur · 6/10 · 24 December 2021]

This was my most anticipated film of the year but it is mediocre that i hate it i absolutely hate it with passion this story was so extraordinary no masala should have been their but this was one of the most saddest and melodramatic film of the year.

What a pleasant surprise

[eviljairaj · 10/10 · 23 December 2021]

I went with low expectations but the movie really surprised it will really good had everything in it humor, emotion, action was feel good film worth watching on big screen.

Definitely Worth a look !!!

[winak · 7/10 · 21 March 2022]

I don't mind telling that I dislike Ranveer Singh as an actor. But he gained respect in my eyes with this role. He embodied "Kapil dev" in every way, his mannerisms, accent, bowling style. I was in the 10th standard when this World cup took place. Until then just like the English commentator, I didn't think India was capable of doing anything great. After that day when India lifted the World cup high, I believed we can achieve anything as a country as long as we have the belief and discipline. Kabir the director was able to capture that emotion and pride, I and millions of Indians felt that day in this movie. The actor who played Indira Gandhi was a spitting image of our late PM. Deepika seem to be an after thought when it came to casting. Except for Binny/Srikanth/Kirmani l do wish the rest of the cast were closer in looks/style to the original players. With the West Indies team it got more confusing as there were very less similarities to the original team.

I realize a fictional sports movie, is much more well received than a factual movie because in fiction you can add exaggerations to bolster the scenes while in a factual movie you are bound by facts.

Had this movie done well it would have been a perfect homage to the national heroes who put India on the international cricketing map. That was the foundation stone on which today's Indian team and their achievement stand on. Jai Hind !!!

Priceless and Scintillating

[PavanKV · 9/10 · 27 December 2021]

83- Patriotic, energy pumping and goosebumps moments movie that invigorates lots of pride moments and fulfillment.

Kabir Khan carries forward the script, story and screenplay with finesse and maintains the cricket theme as the heart and soul, with zero deviation.

Ranveer Singh hits fours and sixes with pitch perfect "The Haryana Hurricane" Kapil paaji.

Cheeku's comic timing is on point. Rest of the characters have done extremely well.

This is not a cinema alone, as we get a chance to relive magical moments with thunderous experience. It's priceless!

Fall of bollywood..

[sunnyshinde-43013 · 7/10 · 30 December 2021]

Good movie, But this industry is gonna fall after SSR incident. A south Indian movie (Pushpa) did more money than 83 😂. There were many goosebumps moment in the movie.

Don't let bots influence this movie.

[utkarsh141194 · 10/10 · 25 December 2021]

The movie was great and it was a joy to watch the movie. All these SSR bots don't have anything going in their life so they just want to discredit someone's good work. Avoid nonsense and watch the movie.

Good it flipped

[nitinjaiswal06 · 8 January 2022]

Statement given pakistani will like it. In movie it is show that on world cup match let indian watch cricket Pakistan will no do blast for one day .. this is new india we like uri. Also story is flop even dhoni is far better.

Lehra do

[sameerlodaya · 7/10 · 4 January 2022]

Sameer Lodaya

Kabir khan has shown the journey of winning World Cup 83

The direction was of highest quality followed by sharp edits with extraordinary prosthetics..every actor gave their best and each character was equally weighted..some scenes were really emotional and gave a good touch of patriotism..humour was very good..thrills and goosebumps were felt in the climax ..the movie is focused mainly for commercial viewers..ranveer played the lead role very well with his high energy..Pankajji was the jewel in the cup..

Good songs were badly needed with sporting background scores..too too much of emotions which was not required as this is era of hard content..Little bit of polished and perfect cricket was required..

Was worth the wait.

Once more disaster by Bollywood!

[padmajadesai · 1/10 · 21 October 2022]

The performance and direction is absolute below average. Ranveer's acting I can't believe it, this is one of the bad performance from him.

The story line could have been impactful, did not feel any connection with any characters and the story line just falls flat.

There's no background of how our great players used to practice but all about how they party and enjoy their time off the field.

This has been a disappointment because it won't help our current generation as there is nothing to learn from one of the best players of time.

Bollywood needs serious attention towards their work in this art as if they go with this flow it's going to end soon.

Movie with lot of excellence ✨

[manishvijayjaiswal · 10/10 · 24 December 2021]

Very nice cinematography.. excellent performance by team and Ranveer singh .. u can feel the real 83 era in this movie.. after milkha singh this movie makes us emotional and gives goosebumps. ❤🇮🇳💪

Awesome must watch, don't follow hatters here

[harishtanwani · 10/10 · 24 December 2021]

It's a must watch movie, just loved it... complete drama movie and acting done by all actors is very well..don't just follow negative people who comment without watch.

Documentary Movie

[IPyaarCinema · 6/10 · 31 March 2022]

Review By Kamal K

Movie has nothing to do with cricket basics or details. So, if ur hoping to see documentary drama then don't see this one. Full of emotions, songs. India started as underdog in 83' world Cup and went to win the cup against mighty WI is grand gala event, certainly this movie doesn't do complete justice to that.

The parts involving the matches and cricketers in general were great. Especially, the bowling action of Kapil Dev, Marshall and Madan Lal. The fact that the late Malcolm Marshall was played by his real life son was astonishing. They nailed the Ravi Shastri celebration, the Sunil Gavaskar stance, Viv Richards' mannerisms and that iconic catch from Kapil.

Simple treatment for the down-to-earth champions

[cinish · 9/10 · 24 December 2021]

"Your mettle should show in the scoreboard, not in your eyes." Kapil Dev's grounded and unassuming leadership makes for some good insights through the movie.

All the team members are unaffected and grounded and is a welcome change from the "me me" brouhaha that sometimes surrounds sports movies.

The movie's treatment aligns with Kapil's calm meter. There is not a lot of melodrama. It is almost like a cricket highlights documentary but that is fine. The movie does not try to pretend to be anything else. There were some scenes of how the soldiers fighting at the border were following the world cup. The movie would have been the same t-shirt without these threads hanging out.

Ranveer's transformation to Kapil Dev is remarkable. Teeth seemed to have protruded a little more than necessary. Otherwise, the demeanor and the conversation style all seemed to have been captured pretty well.

Casting of the players has been hit or miss. Some of them hit the right note, some may be not as much.

It is a light easy watch, meant to celebrate the champions of world cup 1983.

Not a goosebumps giving movie

[kforkandarp · 6/10 · 31 December 2021]

The story behind Indian cricket team's famous victory of 1983 cricket world cup , a good movie to watch ,good screenplay and background music , good dialogues , but still after finishing whole movie it feels like something was missing which would give you the goosebumps , it could have been more interesting than this , some scenes looks like clearly copied from MS Dhoni biopic movie, if Neeraj Pandey have directed this movie then he could give the proper justice to film this historical incident .It one time watch ,a good movie but not like "to watch again and again" movie .

83 is a must watch, 2.5 hr will be passed within blink of an eye

[jitendra9387 · 10/10 · 25 December 2021]

Those who has written negative reviews or given a 1 start just don't understand has an agenda against Ranveer Singh or Kabir Khan.

Don't trust those buggers, please go ahead and watch it in theatres. This movie deserves to be watched in theatres only. What a recreation of the 83 world cup, having born after 83, I could really feel the emotions. I didn't even know how 2.5 hrs passed, literally I slept in almost all movies when I sit in a recliner seat but not on this one. The music, the acting, the story...it's simply awesome. Please go and watch.

What i expected was the inside story, but what i got instead was a general documentary.

[Perspicuity1 · 6/10 · 5 April 2022]

I had great expectations from this film, but after watching it I wondered as to what was the point of making this film. This movie is more of a documentary than a feature film. Watching this film felt like watching highlights of multiple cricket matches. '83' has a lot of cricket, depiction of incidents that actually took place, but I just couldn't connect emotionally with the proceedings of the film nor could I find any reason as to why a movie was required to showcase all these things.

If we think about it, 1983 Cricket World Cup was a tournament in which India was one of the lowest ranked teams, a team that no one believed in. But that team not only managed to win the world cup but also did it by defeating the strongest team in the world. How did they do it ? No one knows the inside story of how the underdogs became world champions. Now this plot is extremely intriguing, this is the story that we all want to know. Today, everyone knows that India is a cricketing superpower, but India's success story has been 38 years in the making. This is why I always felt that India's 1983 World Cup triumph story deserves to be told on a big screen in a theatre, but after watching Kabir Khan's 83, I was massively disappointed.

Perhaps real life is not always as interesting as it's shown in the sports movies we have seen so far, or may be director Kabir Khan did not want to ruffle the wrong feathers by showing anything controversial. Maybe the problem with this film was that it focused on the event and the entire team in general, while most sports related movies depict the stories from the point of view of one player, and this is one of the key reasons why it felt like watching a documentary, because none of the characters were fleshed out properly, or given a backstory. The movie does mention some incidents from the player's lives, but they don't make any kind of impact. A good story alone cannot make a good film, it needs a good storyteller as well. There was no real flow in this film, it felt like certain real life sequences were randomly stitched together to make this film. What we wanted was an inside story, but what we got instead was a bird's eye view. I feel Kabir Khan wasn't the right person to make this film.

A very important thing missing from the film was any kind of conflict, anywhere. Achievement of the ultimate goal feels even sweeter, when you know the hardships that the players have gone through, the obstacles that were laid down in their path. Unfortunately there is none of that in this film. Popular sport films like 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar', 'Saala Khadoos', 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', 'Chak De India', 'Paan Singh Tomar' are not only remembered for the ultimate goal achieved by the protagonists, but also for all the conflicts and sub conflicts depicted in the film. Unfortunately there is none of that in this film. The movie remains plain and simple throughout its runtime.

Another issue that I had with this film was its below par background music. These kind of films need to have music that gets on your blood, touches your heart, evokes emotions, gets you excited, gives you goosebumps, but the background score of this film did none of that. I felt that it was quite ordinary and some of it wasn't even original.

Despite all the problems with the film, there were certainly a few things that were truly praiseworthy :

1. The casting and make-up was on point. All the actors looked almost exactly like the player they were depicting.

2. The cricket matches felt real. The massive stadiums filled with thousands of people, the camera work and the action on field made it feel like it was an actual match that you were watching.

3. Although, there wasn't a lot of scope for any actor to showcase his or her acting skills, but Ranveer Singh and Jiiva deserve to be mentioned for nailing their characters to perfection.

4. There were quite a few goosebumps inducing moments in the film, especially the scene when Indian team gets unexpected support and motivation from a very special spectator and the song 'Lehra Do' plays in the background.

5. The blending of real life footage, depicting how it actually happened, with the scenes of the film was done very well and certainly added a lot of value to the movie watching experience.

83 did not turn out to be the film that I was hoping for, and I can't even recommend it to any cricket lover or anyone in general who wishes to know how India stunned the cricketing world in the year 1983. I would much rather recommend people to watch the highlights videos of the actual match available on YouTube. But I would still want some other filmmaker to make another film on this subject, and in that depict a story that feels more flesh and blood than a general documentary.

Fantastic

[sahil_shah-53365 · 10/10 · 25 December 2021]

Just finished watching 83 in theaters. What a fantastic performance by ranveer singh.

Wonderfully well shot and motivating film.

It really fealt that Ranveer Singh did a mirror imaging of Kapil Dev.

Decent movie.. except for Deepika's role in the movie

[dheemanth11 · 6/10 · 26 December 2021]

Enjoyed the movie except for Deepika's face come up every now and then at the end. I understand she was playing role of a family member, but you kept taking away the emotions. I was only imagining Kapil Dev in Ranveer's role. But Deepika was Deepika. Nothing else. She kept demanding screen time just because she was "Deepika".

What a disgrace to such a great achievement

[vaswanikeshav · 1/10 · 26 March 2022]

What was the need of showing that pak army is being humble towards Indian army? This event never took place and has no relation with 83 world cup. There are many scenes where you've disgraced our 83 wc heroes and sounded then really characterless.

Ranveer singh knocked it out of the park

[kgbgowda · 8/10 · 24 December 2021]

A wonderful and breath freshing film with all the actors did great in filling the shoes of the cricketers which is in itself a huge achievement. Ranveer singh take a bow ,the Man never disappoints including co actors pankaj tripathi and the ones who played srikkanth,yashpal sharma were outstanding. The film is mixture of all the aspects emotions, nationalism,pride, dedication,hardwork and lots of laughter. It is written really well and always keeps you on the edge of your seat and takes you through the journey of the story. Never feels bored and the film itself teaches you to enjoy the life.the film has so many moments through out which will make you die laughing.

The negative aspect of the film is the melo-drama which is generally expected to digest for the Indian audience. It gets more and more as the tournament progresses and ruins the finale.

Deepika Padukone had a short role did look good but was unnecessary.

With a glimpse cameo of Kapil Dev himself the film is a complete mass entertainer.

I will give it 8 out of 10 stars.