I saw Dangal! I am getting no sleep tonight! Oh well, I’m sure I will be able to sleep sometime. Monday? Anyway, I wanted to get a quick NO SPOILERS review up while it was fresh in my mind.
Ever since this movie was announced, I was worried about if it would be the daughters’ story, instead of a story about how awesome their father was for making such daughters. And I can tell you, this film put not one foot wrong! They built it brilliantly, addressing every possible concern, from gender preference to girls’ education, in just the right way. And making it clear that their father may have gotten them started on this path, but Babita and Geeta found success all on their own.
And because this is their story, not their father’s, Aamir steps back and let’s the actresses take the lead. Not right away, in the early parts of the film when they are still child actresses, the adults take the lead. Which is probably wise, child actors can feel so fake if they are stuck with long dialogues or big emotional scenes. So the kids are just there to sit and be cute and make reaction faces.
But when it changes to the older actresses, there are whole sections where Aamir isn’t even part of it. And I didn’t notice! I was so caught up in their stories and their performances that I wasn’t waiting for Aamir to come back onscreen at all. And the triumph at the end is clearly their triumph, not something gifted to them by their father.
This film though, this film is definitely “gifted” to them by Aamir. My friend who I saw it with (who is a huge Aamir fan) said that only he could play this part. And she’s kind of right! Not just because he does a very good job with it, plenty of other actors including both of the Khans could have done a good job in this particular character (heck, they kind of have! Definite similarities with Chak De and Sultan), but because of how completely he disappears within the part. Aamir the movie star is just gone entirely, this is Aamir the aging small town wrestler. And as such, we can forget about him, ignore him, not even think about him for whole sections while the unknown actresses take the lead.
(Here’s Shahrukh, not letting them take the lead)
Besides his performance, knowing Aamir, I am pretty sure he had a strong hand in all the rest of the film as well. And it was all just so well done! The songs were great, they didn’t feel like the movie stopped dead for no reason, they had a purpose. The look of the film was just right, everything was a little shoddy and a little average, and the family house believably shifted and changed as the years passed. And there were some really clever little sequences explaining the rules of formal wrestling just so the audience could understand it.
There were 4 wrong parts of the film, really just 4 little sets of dialogue that rang false. Only, they were so false, it felt like the filmmakers must have done it on purpose. They must have decided that this is a family movie and a children’s movie, and as such it was okay to have a few moments that were completely obvious and a little cheesy.
This really is such a family movie! In the best possible way. There is nothing that wouldn’t be easily understood and appreciated by a child of 8, there is nothing scary, or sad, or confusing. Even the humor is on the child side, girls beating up boys and stuff like that.
But while it is set for a family audience in a way that feels very “Disney”, it is not set for an international audience. It’s not-not set for an international audience either, I certainly enjoyed it and I am pretty sure anyone I take with me will enjoy it too. But they aren’t putting them in fancy western style clothing, their house and their village and their everything else looks like you would expect it to look, they aren’t trying to make it more familiar for people outside of India. And there is almost no English dialogue. And they pull no punches about the reality of life for girls in these villages (teenage marriages, constant teasing by boys, etc. etc.). This isn’t the “Disneyland” version of India, watered down and all the flavor taken out, this is something specific and real.
(Have I mentioned recently how much I hated Ki and Ka?)
Although, interestingly, in order to make something that feels “real”, they changed some details of the real story! Not in a big way, just the vague impression I got from the wikipedia articles and so on did not match some of the relationships and interactions here. And I am pretty sure some of this conflict was invented and some people weren’t quite so evil, and some others weren’t quite so saintly.
But, who cares! It’s a children’s movie! That’s the big thing I walked out of it thinking. My theater was pretty filled with kids, and I never had a moment when I was worried about them being bored, or needing their eyes or ears covered, or getting scared or sad. In that way, it reminded me of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Both of them have fairly simple stories told in a simple way, and they are enjoyable as an adult, but if you put yourself in the mindset of a child, they are magical.
dontcallitbollywood 
This sounds fantastic. You’ve really provided a nice feel for the movie without giving too much away. I wish my six year old was just a bit older and could read a bit faster. This sounds like the perfect film to take him to. He was quite taken with some of the greco-roman and freestyle wrestling at the last Olympics as well. You and Moviemavengal have certainly made my holiday movie decision a difficult one!
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Oh this is the perfect movie for a 6 year old! You could follow along the general plot without any subtitles, so long as you told him the story in the car on the way there so he knew generally what would happen (guy wants sons and has daughters, decides to train them to be wrestlers, they grow up and win competitions). But he would probably miss a few things, which might be frustrating for him. Or, of course, you could go to a weekend matinee and just read aloud all the subtitles to him (pretty sure there were some people doing that at my show last night).
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I normally read him the subtitles (or bits of them) when he watches with me at home. I’ve always worried that it would annoy other people in the theater. You’re right though, if it was a matinee, we could find a spot away from the other patrons. Heck, if it was the Befikre crowd last week, I could have screamed the translations and I don’t think it would have bothered a soul! Also, you touched on in your book (or thesis, or probably both) that Hindi films really seem to be the easiest to understand just by watching the images. It always amazes me how much the kids pick up just from watching. If I’m watching a Truffaut or a Bergman film or something, they are completely lost (and utterly bored.) It’s another aspect that makes these movies so special. I’m definitely going to try to figure out a way to see Dangal. And if we get swept up in the holiday juggernaut, we can look forward to it in a couple of months when the blu-ray comes out.
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I had a friend who used to bring her copy of Dostana with her when she was babysitting and the baby looooooved it. I don’t think it was so much following the plot (he was about 8 months old), but the sound and colors and all of that were right up his alley.
And to be fair, I am usually also both bored and lost when watching Bergman and Truffaut. So once he learns to read subtitles, your 6 year old will be at about the same film taste-level as me. (I assume you’ve shown him Singin in the Rain already? That was my favorite movie when I was 6. And is still my favorite movie today, if we limit it to classic American films)
On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 12:36 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I haven’t! I bet he will love it. I haven’t watched it in a decade, at least. I do have the dvd, though, so it’s as easy as walking downstairs and finding it on the shelf. That seems like a great back-up plan if we can’t make it to Dangal during the break.
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Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep instead of watching movie releases? I’m sure relatives must be looking forward to you being awake. (but — good review!)
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It’s fine, I’ll sleep next year.
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I see Ryan C’s comments about his kid not understanding the language. I can assure you, if the content is of the topic of interest for the kid, the language will not matter. My 3 year daughter who only knows English, can sit through multiple Indian language films and she even has her favorites (Om Shanti Oshana, Malayalam). And this is not specific to kids, I have met many Africans (in the US) who have told me they used to watch Bollywood movies back in Africa (and every now and then even after they came to America), with no subtitles and no knowledge of the Indian language.
I only think the comedy movies or court room dramas are hard to follow for people who don’t know the language.
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That is an excellent point, particularly about the nuances of those specific genres. I’ve had trouble following some court room dramas, even in English!
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I have SO much to say about this film. As soon as there is a spoiler review out, I’ll say more. But please let me just start. So, your comments (which by the way are shared by almost everyone from professional reviewers to twitter. I am clearly clearly in the minority). 1), “And making it clear that their father may have gotten them started on this path, but Babita and Geeta found success all on their own.” That is NOT at all clear. They were going to go the same route as the friend whose wedding they attend.2) “This film though, this film is definitely “gifted” to them by Aamir. ” This film is all about the father, even in the sections he’s not in. Maybe Amir subsumes his stardom (which he doesn’t really have in the same way as some others) so that’s good, but as to the story, it is clearly the father’s story. 3) I will be fully open to the fact I am totally biased about Shah Rukh, but, “Here’s Shahrukh, not letting them take the lead” attached to a pic of running with his team in Chak De. That movie was SO much more about the triumphs of the girls. We see the denouement for EACH of the girls at the end. It is much much more their film than Dangal. Okay, more in the Spoiler one.
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