DANGAL

Former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat and his two wrestler daughters struggle towards glory at the Commonwealth Games in the face of societal oppression.

If there is something, I have grown up watching from Bollywood, it is sports movies. All of them being insanely motivative, in fact I can recall taking up a new sport every time I watched something of the sort.

This is one of the best Bollywood movies I have ever watched, especially for a good, motivational family movie. It connects to almost everyone, no matter if you are a male or female, Indian or not, this will hit you deeper than you think.

Main highlight for me was the acting itself. Being a daughter in an Indian household, there are expectations of you, boundaries that are crazy to other races, but they must be obeyed, nonetheless. The way, as a father, Mahavir Singh Phogat looked after his daughters in a time son were all the rage was one thing, but also the challenges he put his children through was amazingly portrayed onscreen. Certain scenes were just too much to bear in terms of emotion, it can internally cripple your soul. No exaggeration (I would never).

The whole story at the end of the day emphasized the fact that no matter what goes through a parent’s mind, expectations, and dreams, they would always support their child and love them unconditionally. This message needs to be spread, especially to people who think their parents are not doing what’s right for them, but at the end they could never think of anything bad to happen to their kids. Parenthood works in mysterious ways that I could never understand, not yet at least. But I see the beauty in it, hidden by the pain of having to be a parent.  Slightly more toward beauty, as I have been told.

 Secondly, hats off to the cast. Aamir Khan was not only incredibly believable in this, but also super dedicated. He actually put-on weight for this role, around 30kg’s in fact, to act as the father. Then, had to reduce it back, and it took him 5 months, to get into the figure of an actual wrestler to shoot scenes that required him to be ripped. Not only that, the training the the four main leads as daughters, Geeta and Babita (young and old) had to undergo training for several months as well to make their matches and fights onscreen look as realistic as possible. Not only is this a tribute and act of respect toward the sport and the actual people this story was inspired from (yes, this is a true tale) but dedication like that is so appreciated by film watchers, as the movie is put on an even higher pedestal than it was.

Another thing I love about this movie is the music score, which I find to fit perfectly in here. It is definitely on my workout playlist, I will give you that. Music scored make or break it for me. Just like how in epic movies, the music scores have to correspond to that, these music scores from here are motivating and driven. I will attach them here your personal reviews.

This movie is also very similar to Sultan, another hindi wrestling movie. The prime difference being the women factor. This is a more feminist side to sports (who does not like that). How two girls reached such heights, facing every single emotion a girl faces in life, multiplied compared to men's feelings. There was one scene I still think about alot when this movie flashes in front of me, the wedding scene. These two girls attend their friends marriage (they were all still in their teens, seeing how in India wedding off girls at young ages was normal). Geeta and Babita were very upset with how much their dad had been pushing them to wrestle, eliminating every thing they likes, name it, food leisure, etc. Their friend to be married looks them straight in the eye and says, how lucky they are to have a father that cares for them, for her own father cannot wait to get her married off to another family and think of her as nothing but a burden. That is not the reality we live in now, but to imagine that was the actual reality of millions of young girls pierces my heart. It also brings a smile to my face thinking how much that reality has changed, girls are considered gems too today. Kudos to those who fought for this purpose, including Geeta and Babita. 

Cast: Aamir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra, Zaira Wasim, Sakshi Tanwar, Suhani Bhatnagar, Aparshakti Khurana, Girish Kulkarni, Vivan Bhatena, Ritwik Sahore, Anuraag Arora, Shishir Sharma, Badrul Islam, Karmveer Chaudhary, Mahesh Balraj, Ravi Aneja, Gurpreet Toti, Meenu Prajapati, Jagbir, Maxima Basu, Olamilaken Akanbi Jason, Ansh Rathore, Dilip Sinha

Director: Nitesh Tiwari

Year released: 2016

Link to watch full movie with english subtitles: Watch Dangal Movie Free Online - 9Movies