Dangal isn’t a biography but several creative liberties have been taken to package the true story of two top Indian women wrestlers and their father’s life into this Christmas package.

Aamir Khan’s portrayal of a 50-something father to two rebel daughters comes as a pleasant surprise. Finally, the Khan triumvirates of Bollywood [Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir] seem to be getting their act together by portraying middle-aged men dealing with children (Shah Rukh was excellent in Dear Zindagi and so was Salman in Bajrangi Bhaijaan).

Dangal is about an amateur wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir) in the state of Haryana in North India. A national-level kushti (dangal) pehelwan, financial constraints stopped him from participating in international competitions and forced him to take up a clerical job to support his family.

It’s after a long time that an admirable story has been told on celluloid with powerhouse performances from both senior and amateur actors

His dream of having his son win a gold medal for the country in the international arena shatters after his wife Daya Shobha Kaur (Sakshi Talwar) gives birth to four daughters. Haryana is predominantly a patriarchal society and prior to the Phogat siblings, women didn’t participate in sports.

Then comes the day when an incident makes Mahavir realise that girls can participate in sports as well and, in the face of criticism and disapproval from the villagers, he starts training two of his daughters Geeta (Zaira Wasim/Fatima Sana Shaikh) and Babita (Suhani Bhatnagar/Sanya Malhotra). His strict discipline earns him the title of ‘Mogambo.’ 

There is a rock-solid script at work here and excellent direction. Credit also goes to the superlative performances by Zaira and Suhani as the young Geeta and Babita. If it wasn’t for them, Dangal would not have tasted success. Their rebelliousness when they are forced to wake up at 5am to run across the village, carry weights, swim in the cold river, eat healthy foods, wear short pants and cut their long hair filled the cinema hall with mirth.

Adding to it is the background song of Baapu sehat ke liye tu to haanikarak hai written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. The song sung by two Manganiar boys from Rajasthan is so apt that one actually empathises with the two characters who are being trained to become winners. The music by Pritam is also totally in sync with the mood of the film.

In a region where girls are trained to cook, look after homes, marry and have children, what Mahavir does is a tremendously gutsy step. Dangal handles his determination very aptly without getting into sermonising.

What stops Dangal short of becoming an all time great flick are the common Bollywood clichés employed by director Nitesh Tiwari. Why turn the coach into a villain when Indians know the real coach of the girls at NSNIS is friends with the Phogat siblings?

The best part of Dangal is Aamir’s changeover to resemble the portly Mahavir Phogat, for which he piled on an additional 22kgs, white stubble and the typical wrestler’s gait. Most of the film is in the Harayanvi dialect so subtitles are liberally used.

What stops Dangal short of becoming an all time great flick are the common Bollywood clichés employed by director Nitesh Tiwari. Why turn the coach into a villain when Indians know the real coach of the girls at NSNIS is friends with the Phogat siblings? Also, the act of vengeance towards the end is so meaningless that the last 15 minutes takes away from the goodness of the entire film. Here’s wishing sense had prevailed upon producers Aamir, Kiran Rao and Siddharth Roy Kapoor not to bow down to Bollywood trends.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 8th, 2017