03-16-2009, 02:52 PM
Iqbal is a 2005 Hindi Bollywood film about cricket. If you know anything of the game, you'll know it's likely to be a long movie. This one runs about 2 and a quarter hours. An 18-year-old wants to become a cricket pitcher, but there are several obstacles. He's deaf and mute, and his father is adamant that he work in the fields for the rest of his life. His little brainy sister becomes his mouth and ears, helping him outwit the father and earn a tryout with a team. It's a very standard sports movie in all other ways. There's the old drunkard who turns out to be a past master pitcher, and the boy must pester him into teaching him. There are repeated setbacks, then the victories, culminating in a showdown between the boy pitcher and a rich-kid batter -- with threats from above to throw the match or else.
The final denouement is actually very unsatisfying. Still, the boy and his little sister are very good in their roles, and the drunken master is outstanding.
If you're going to watch just one cricket movie, I would not recommend this one. Instead, see the epic Lagaan, which tops out at almost 4 hours.
Lagaan is pronounced like logon only with a slight "a" sound. To say it correctly, have someone hook their fingers in the corners of your mouth and pull outward while you say logon. There's supposed to be a slight trill to it as well, so have another friend flap your upper and lower lips during the process.
Speaking of pronunciation, we've worked for years with someone named Balaji in India, but only when Lady Cranefly was over in his native country did he dare tell her that we'd always been mispronouncing his name. We thought the second syllable had emphasis. But actually there should be no emphasis at all. It's pronounced like topology only without "top" and prefixed with a "ba" sound like a sheep. There's a Balaji in Iqbal, by the way, but it's not a sheep. It's a water buffalo that keeps getting hit in the side with a cricket ball.
Lady Cranefly brought me back a cricket ball, by the way. It's very very cool, like a croquet ball only made of leather and with a complex series of seam lines. It's a dark red, the color your skin would turn if you were hit by something thrown real hard.
The final denouement is actually very unsatisfying. Still, the boy and his little sister are very good in their roles, and the drunken master is outstanding.
If you're going to watch just one cricket movie, I would not recommend this one. Instead, see the epic Lagaan, which tops out at almost 4 hours.
Lagaan is pronounced like logon only with a slight "a" sound. To say it correctly, have someone hook their fingers in the corners of your mouth and pull outward while you say logon. There's supposed to be a slight trill to it as well, so have another friend flap your upper and lower lips during the process.
Speaking of pronunciation, we've worked for years with someone named Balaji in India, but only when Lady Cranefly was over in his native country did he dare tell her that we'd always been mispronouncing his name. We thought the second syllable had emphasis. But actually there should be no emphasis at all. It's pronounced like topology only without "top" and prefixed with a "ba" sound like a sheep. There's a Balaji in Iqbal, by the way, but it's not a sheep. It's a water buffalo that keeps getting hit in the side with a cricket ball.
Lady Cranefly brought me back a cricket ball, by the way. It's very very cool, like a croquet ball only made of leather and with a complex series of seam lines. It's a dark red, the color your skin would turn if you were hit by something thrown real hard.