Trama

The journey of a man who was instrumental in making India win its first Olympic gold medal as a free nation.

Tapan Das manager of Gold winning Indian hockey team during British rule dreams of bringing Gold medal to the country post Independence.India is nearing Independence and Tapan finds news of 1948 Olympics. Tapan prepares his own team for the upcoming Olympics.But during the partition team also gets divided along with the country.—alex.mjacko@gmail.com

Tapan Das (Akshay Kumar), went with the British Indian Olympic hockey team to Berlin for the 1936 games. In a brutally tough final against Germany (who broke many rules and played rough), British India defeated Germany 7-1, after Tapan & Captain Samrat (Kunal Kapoor) rallied the team at half around the Indian flag and the prospect of a free India.

1940 Helsinki Olympics and 1944 London Olympics are canceled due to the WW. Monobina Das (Mouni Roy) is Tapan's wife and shares his pain of not being able to represent India. Tapan goes on become a heavy drinker due to which Monobina has to mortgage her jewelry to keep the house going. Mr. Mehta (Atul Kale) is the secretary of IHF who fires Tapan from his job, citing corruption & inconsistencies.

After India's independence, a drunk Indian Hockey Team Manager (pre-independence), Tapan Das (Akshay Kumar), holds aspirations of playing hockey as a free country, coaching a novice hockey team to earn independent India's first Olympic gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics while battling his own personal demons and the changing independence era. Since 1928, the Brits never sent their own Hockey team to the Olympics as they feared defeat from the Indians, but now Tapan knows that at the 1948 Olympics, they will have no choice but to face the Indians.

In 1946, as soon as the dates for London games are announced, Tapan petitions the IHF President Mr. Wadia (Darius Shroff) to give him responsibility for the India Hockey team as there is no team and no practice for the last 9 years, due to the war. Darius Shroff likes Tapan's honesty and passion and gives him permission to scout for the team. Tapan contacts Samrat (who is retired in the Army now), to take captain-ship. Samrat refuses but recommends Imtiaz Ali Shah (Vineet Kumar Singh). Next Tapan recruits Raghubir Pratap Singh (Amit Sadh), who is from a royal family, but excels at Hockey.

In Punjab, Himmat Singh (Sunny Kaushal) is a excellent hockey player who was recruited into the police forces by the Brits. He is selected by Imtiaz to play center forward. The team is assembled at the National Games in Bombay in 1947. Tensions start from the beginning as Raghu demands special handling from Imtiaz, which he flatly refuses and treats Raghu just like the others. Mr. Wadia soon announces the team and Tapan is the joint manager.

But then Partition of the country is announced and Imtiaz is attacked by an angry mob, and only saved by Himmat and Tapan. Tapan encourages Imtiaz to leave for Lahore with his family and the India Hockey team loses its captain. The team loses 6 players to Pakistan and 2 were native Aussies. Tapan is heartbroken. That's when Samrat comes back and offers to train a new team. Tapan gets a room at a monastery for the team and enlists his wife to cook for team for the duration of the camp.

Samrat's first order of business is to discipline Raghu and to get him to behave like a team player. Soon they are faced with infighting and regionalism within the team members. Samrat and Tapan work together to create a strong team, which is noticed by Mr. Wadia, but infuriates Mr. Mehta.

Mehta takes advantage of Wadia's absence and fires Tapan for drunken conduct at an official IHF function. The team leaves for London without Tapan. The Brits puts India and Pakistan in the same group so that only one reaches the final. Mehta misbehaves with the team. Wadia takes notices and brings back Tapan. Tapan and the Pakistani team manager protest to the Olympic committee against putting India and Pak in the same group. The committee agrees and changes the fixtures list.

The team wins the group stage and gets to the Semi Finals. Pakistan loses in semifinal to England, due to their rough tactics. Tapan had kept Himmat in hiding in the group stage, so that he could be unleashed in the semifinals and finals. But night before the semifinals, Himmat attacks Raghu accusing him of keeping him on bench deliberately. The next day Mehta and Raghu vote against Tapan to keep Himmat out of the playing team. Tapan was proved right when the Netherlands block all scoring opportunities for India having seen the game of its best players. India barely win in the last 10 seconds due to an own goal by the Dutch goalkeeper.

The final is against Britain and Tapan tells Raghu that he will never be Samrat if he doesn't keep the team above his selfish ego. By half time India is down 0-2 and again England if playing rough and not being penalized by referees. At half time, Tapan galvanizes everyone to play for India and not for their petty egos. Raghu invites Himmat to play the 2nd half. Soon its 3-1 to Britain and it starts raining which suits the Brits as they have spikes in their shoes. The Indians are slipping everywhere. Tapan asks the team to remove shoes & play barefoot for better traction. India wins the finals 4-3.