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A sport of strength, focus, technique and timing, there’s much more to wrestling than beating the opponent black and blue. Like WWE legend Shawn Michaels always believed ‘A true wrestler is the one who never stops learning and evolving.’
But with Vinesh Phogat’s heartbreaking disqualification over discrepancies in weight at the Paris Olympics just when India was keeping its fingers crossed for a sure shot victory at the finals, spirits have hit an all-time low.
Art mirrors life and it won’t be a surprise if our sports biopic obsessed film-makers turn this dramatic change of events into a movie one day.
On that note, Sukanya Verma looks at 10 wrestling moments of Bollywood.
Dangal
Nitesh Tiwari’s nuanced creation, inspired by Mahavir Phogat’s experiences of training his daughters Geeta and Babita to win gold for India, tackles patriarchy and parenting as well as provides some solid glimpses in contact sport choreography.
Sultan
Salman Khan’s striking physical transformation to play a jaded pahelwan returning to form for personal reasons shows a rarely ever explored vulnerability.
Though Sultan‘s leading lady gets a fairly shoddy deal, Anushka Sharma gladly puts her sportiest foot forward as a state-level wrestling champion forced to pick between her personal and professional commitments.
Chandu Champion
Kartik Aaryan’s portrayal of Murlikant Rajaram Petkar’s life covers several chapters of his extraordinary story, which begin with a deep love for pahelwani and reverence for its ultimate icon, Dara Singh.
Swades
NASA scientist Mohan Bhargav is a man of his word. And Shah Rukh Khan fulfils his promise to engage in a bout of kushti with the village postman cum pahelwan Rajesh Vivek in a friendly contest at the end of Ashutosh Gowariker’s feel-good slice of nationalism.
Race 2
John Abraham’s freestyle wrestler jumping inside a cage fight opposite an equally burly foreigner is just the sort of brawny action Race 2‘s masala revels in.
Karan Arjun
Remember the time a rough and tough Salman Khan involuntarily calls off all bets after his previous birth memories pop up right in the middle of a wrestling bout leaving his adversary gasping for breath and mercy?
Ghatak
Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ghatak glances at the akhara culture against the ghats of Benares in Sunny Deol’s dedicated pahelwan, which underscores his muscle and authenticity when he proceeds to single handedly take on a Mumbai crime lord.
Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi
’90s era World Wrestling Federation stars Undertaker and Crush clobber each other inside the ring and outside it on Canada underworld kingpins Rekha and Gulshan Grover’s orders. The real fun begins when Akshay Kumar jumps in to do his bit in this unabashedly Khiladi franchise.
Chameli Ki Shaadi
Anil Kapoor’s scrawny pahelwan hopes to achieve all the goals set by his pleasure-prohibiting, girl-hating guru Om Prakash go down the drain when he falls in love with Amrita Singh’s titular Chameli. Part of its chuckle value lies in watching AK slugging it out with a portly fella in the free-for-all dangal.
Pehli Jhalak
Speaking of goofy pahelwans and Om Prakash’s comedy, the man sharing tall tales to his minion about wrestling the god of the game Dara Singh followed by scenes of what actually transpired inside the ring is slapstick humour at its vintage best.
