Cricket & Bollywood : Not such a perfect pitch !!!!

Sport has often featured in Bollywood movies but Cinema & Cricket are two passions that enkindle & blend Indians. Both involve money & fame. But Cricket has not yet seen the popularity that other sports have seen in the Film and TV industry. Despite a cricket-crazy nation, there have been quite a few cricket themed movies & mini-series. On screen, our unofficial national sport has rarely caused a sensation. Some of the Bollywood directors don’t want to mix both of them.
 
There have been just too few films made on cricket in our country. India breathes, eats & sleeps cricket, but still Bollywood has had a very disappointing innings. Apart from Lagaan & Iqbal, none of them could make any impact. Dev Anand started the trend some years ago with “Awwal Number” (1990) starring Aamir Khan & Aditya Panscholi but it was a major disaster at the box-office. Even Kumar Gaurav starrer “All-rounder” (1984) was quite a mediocre one and fell totally flat.
 
After “Awwal Number”, it took over a decade for another director to attempt a film on cricket. Ashutosh Gowarikar made “Lagaan” (2001) that tapped the cricket frenzy of the nation. The story of a village’s resistance to colonial oppression kept viewers spellbound.  It was a commercial and critical success & was nominated for an Oscar even. After its enormous success, a trend of movies on cricket was expected, but that did not happen.
 
Post Lagaan, there were a couple of flicks based on cricket like “Stumped” (2003) & “Silence Please… The Dressing Room” (2004), but both of them failed miserably. “Stumped” was set against the backdrop of Kargil conflict & the World Cup (1999, England). It was a story of a soldier who goes missing & his wife (played by Raveena Tandon) goes in depression and is isolated from her cricket-crazy neighbours. The film was released on the eve of 2003 Cricket World Cup. “Silence Please… The Dressing Room” made an unsuccessful attempt to portray cricket and match-fixing together. It couldn’t manage to grab the audience’s attention.
 
But in the year 2005, Nagesh Kukunoor with his film “Iqbal” not only inspired the viewers but also made them fall in love with the game of cricket all over again. The movie portrayed the victory of a guy over disability. It was a story of a deaf-mute village boy who fulfils his dream and makes it to the Indian National Cricket Team as a fast bowler, through various obstacles that come his way.

Now with World Cup Cricket approaching, cricket fever is again on a rise. And two new movies- “Hat-trick” & “Hit for Six” (both featuring cricket prominently) are ready to instigate the audiences and to pump the adrenaline flowing in their nerves. Hat-trick is a proper Bollywood flick whereas “Hit for Six” is a West Indian film focusing on the life of a sidelined West Indian cricketer, Alex Nelson. It has its world premiere in Barbados on April 18th.
 
Lets see if these two flicks are able to generate that madness and cricket fever all over again !!!!