Victory

Victory may not be able to win the race of box office..but it is a good sign for Harman S. Baweja who blundered his debut LS2050.Actually 'VICTORY' is only watchable because of the 45 cricketers in it and the leading man Harman.The script of the film is a bit dull.Music is totally boring and irritating.Only one song is there which can be listened.The theme of the film is good.This is a story of Rise-Fall-Rise of a cricketer named Vijay played by Harman.The other casts of the film were reliable and they did average and good job.But main attraction is actually the boy who failed to make the first impression in his very first film.But Victory will give Harman his proper distinguished recognition. The film is good for one time.The lagging script and bad music are the main negative points.Positive points are...Harman..the real life Cricketers...The story and theme.This is not at all a landmark.It is just a plain entertaining sports movie.

With Victory Hanman Baweja has proved the kind of talent he has.Its one of the best sports movies I've ever seen.And the presence of International Cricketers like Brett Lee & Graeme Smith really put loads of realism in the story.

In todays world when cinema goers can like stupid movies like Dhol & Dhamaal, Victory was miles ahead in every sense of the word.The only negative point in the movie was the the shallow footage given to a talented actress like Amrita Rao.It was Harman's movie all the way.Anupam Kher was very good and so were other actors in their respective roles.Music was nothing to write about, except "Balla Ghooma, Chakka Laga".

Hritik look alike or not Harman will surely carve a niche for himself in the near future provided he picks and chooses his projects carefully.

Watched it because I had a few hours to kill and in hindsight I should have just wasted those three hours staring at the sky then watching this movie.

An impressive list of cricketers make their debut with this movie though most of them can be seen only for a few seconds each. The story was PATHETIC. I didn't think Harman Baweja could sink lower than Love Story 2050 but he has managed to do that. The story simply did not make much sense and most of the cricket scenarios are extremely difficult in real life. Getting selected for the Indian team after just one national match is something even Sachin Tendulkar could not manage. It was as if every ball he faced would go outside the boundary which is nearly impossible in real life. Even the reasons why the mob attacks his house are flimsy.

The only saving grace were the various cricketers from around the world. Harman Baweja does not know how to act. Amrita Rao looked pretty. Anumpam Kher was good.

Trust me, save yourself the admission fees and donate it instead. The entire theater (which would be around 10 people on the first day of release) was laughing at every point in the story because of its stupidity, even the "tragic" moments at the end of the movie.

PS : Show me one cricketer who can hit a ball so high and hard, that it would break the floodlights :P

Victory is perhaps one of the best sports movies i have ever seen. Of course its predictable but so are all sports movies. Harman's acting was the only reason why i didn't vote it 10/10. The script is taut, emotional and very racy. I loved amrita rau;s performance, she's very pretty too. Victory is beautiful because its not a typical bollywood flick, the romance is not typical bollywood, there's no dancing and prancing around the trees and there's no melodrama despite being strong on emotions. The simple story of a cricketer who rises from ashes to glory is very simply put without going overboard with fancy gimmicks or fancy camera movements. In fact i remember Richard attenborough's quote after Gandhi that "the best films are the ones which are most simply told without complicating issues and without letting technique overtake the storytelling" and i would say the director ajitpal mangit has done exactly that. He is a master storyteller, one of the best from bollywood. VICTORY TO VICTORY

Going into the film I had absolutely no expectations...I tend to find any hyped bollywood movie to be overly hyped and full of rubbish. But I was left surprised, very pleasantly surprised and that was a good thing. There's nothing worse than having to sit through a movie with no expectations and get what you expect...

Sure there are flaws in this movie...Vijay's historic rise as a top class batsman is quite unbelievable given that he's goes straight from a virtual nobody to being the hero of the nation in one series...Not to mention the high scores he was achieving...Having watched cricket games it's not all fours, sixes and slogs always...not in ODIs. It's a different matter if we were talking about 20/20 but the game in this movie was ODI and not 20/20. If you want to get technical you've got to consider the weather, the state of the pitch, the ball etc etc. But we'll ignore these. Even so I'm sure the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Yuvraj would love to post consistent numbers as Vijay starts off with...

If the script lapsed in notable fashion it would have to be the transition of Vijay from earnest hardworking, straight laced batsman to playboy, rich kid snob. This faux pas could have been forgiven in the 80s when this sort of thing might have been the norm but sportmen of today are a different breed. They watch what they eat and do, how they act, what actions you perform. The eyes of the public, thanks to the scrutiny of the media, is piercing and unyielding. How Vijay can allow himself to act like a 70s rock star is nonsensical and the transition from one extreme to the other shows a one dimensional thought from the director and writers. Are there any cricketers who act like that today? Would that sort of behaviour be tolerated for an extended period of time? The flow of the movie is decent- there is thankfully not too many moments of over melodrama though the tense ending is quite a stretch.

Acting wise not many complaints. Harman Baweja is okay but at least he takes to the batsman role quite well having done some background research and practicing the swings and poses. At times he looks like a real player but we'll ignore the stupendous amount of sixes he hits. Amrita Rao had a small role but and she was okay. She's quite the expert in playing the friend whose girlfriend/love potential is never realized till the last third of the movie.

Victory is very much like Chak De India though thankfully there's no shah rukh khan to overact and spoil the flow and energy. So far it is the best cricket movie to be made thus far with the exception of the excellent Iqbal. Hopefully there will be others good ones to come forth, just as I hope there will be other football movies to outshine the terrible Goal movie and its subsequent sequels.

Who should watch this? Everyone- it might get a bit slow at times but at the end you won't really find a reason to account for the lost time.