The promise of 83... and the eventual disappointment

In the latest episode of the podcast, we discuss the recent Bollywood movie 83 - which retells the story of India's miraculous victory in the 1983 World Cup.

Note: Readers in India can now buy Mike Marqusee's classic cricket book War Minus The Shooting on Flipkart and Amazon. Readers outside India, can buy the book on Amazon.

Talking Points:

• A missed opportunity to recreate the cricketing miracle that was 1983


• The conspicuous absence of India's victory over West Indies at Berbice


• The complete erasure of Mohinder Amarnath's golden season


• Ranveer Singh and Jiiva - and their game attempt to approximate Kapil Dev and Krishnamachari Srikkanth


• The film not setting the context for the 1983 World Cup


• The lack of a genuine bad guy - which makes the movie search for antagonists


• The factual inaccuracies in the movie - including a big faux pas in the final scene


• The movie explaining scenes way more than showing them through storytelling


• The cinematographic techniques - long-shots combined with close-ups and highlight reels


• The nationalistic tone that runs through the movie


• The Malayalam movie 1983, which takes a completely different approach to recreating the miracle of 1983


• The Indian cricket ecosystem's inability to create cultural value and works of art

Participants:

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Aditya Shrikrishna (@gradwolf)

Anantha (@anantha)

Related:

With Obvious Storytelling, '83' Is an Opportunity Lost to Show Underdog India’s Famous WC Victory - Tanul Thakur - The Wire

83 Loses Itself In The Excesses Of Euphoria - Rahul Desai - Film Companion