So, this is the movie that everyone is like “The best movie of all time!”?  So far, I’m not seeing it.  A good movie certainly, probably a very good movie.  I’m just not having my mind BLOWN by what I am seeing.

First, Disney movie!  Possibly one of the last ones from India?  Anyway, Disney is careful about what UTV releases they really label as “Disney”.  ABCD2, which fits with their sort of Disney Channel young romance identity.  Khoobsurat, which fit with their Disney prince fantasy romance.  And now Dangal, which kind of reminds me of Queen of Katwe and the other high quality Disney movies, which are about young people accomplishing things against great odds.

It looks like a nice movie, don’t get me wrong.  And I like that they don’t soft-peddle that Aamir, our “hero”, isn’t the greatest.  First ignoring his daughters, and then forcing them to focus on wrestling to the exclusion of all else.  And that reveal of young Aamir in the ring at the end is awesome!

But otherwise, it’s really just a straightforward trailer, right?  It shoulds you what happens in the film beginning to end, no fancy edits or surprises.  Compare it with the trailer gold-standard, the trailers Adi cut together for Darr to give the audience a taste for the flavor of the film without any details.

I’m still going to see the movie, obviously.  And I am still excited about it.  I’m just not as “OMG, CAN’T WAIT!” excited as I could be based, on this trailer.  Plus, so far, I kind of think Anushka’s character in Sultan covered all the same points pretty well. The movie could still have twists and turns I can’t predict, but there’s nothing in the trailer that feels that new to me.

The other thing I am a little curious about is what kind of audience they are looking for with this?  The American Disney movies of this ilk are big holiday week releases, things that the whole family can see together, well-made and interesting for the adults, and no sex or violence and a good message for the kids.  But in India, the big families want to go see the colorful movies with songs.  And the people who are down for no songs realistic films, they want something a little more hardcore than this, like Neerja or Airlift or Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.  Not a family movie about little girls.

Although, again, that’s just based on the trailer.  Could be totally different and very deep and dark once I see the whole movie.