More articles by

Priyanka Bhadani
Priyanka Bhadani

NOSTALGIA

Sachin: A Billion Dreams evokes old memories in cricket-lovers

PTI5_24_2017_000132B Sachin Tendulkar along with M.S. Dhoni during before the screening of Sachin: A Billion Dreams in Mumbai | PTI

The film also makes you reminisce the moments that you may have once dreaded as a cricket lover

Usually, once you are out of a film screening, you tend to analyse the film. Did you really like it? Was it worth the hype created through promotions? When we stepped out from a special screening of Sachin: A Billion Dreams, the feeling that reverberated in most was, ‘I am going to watch it again tomorrow.’

The two people sitting next to me, confessed that they haven’t been cricket fanatics. Yet, they could recall what they were up to when Sachin was hitting sixes in the 1991 Sharjah series against Pakistan. One of them recalled how he had also become a fan of Vinod Kambli, who was making a national debut with that match.

In his international debut against Pakistan in 1989, Sachin had come across as an easy kid. Imran Khan’s voice-over says that when he entered the field, they had thought to themselves, “ye toh baccha hai, kisko bula liya hai.” They pressed for victory. Taking the wicket seemed easy. And to top it, Sachin was badly hit on the nose by a rising Waqar delivery. Doctors and everybody else on the field tried to get him off it. The film has the voice-over of Navjot Singh Sidhu, his batting partner, in that match. “I could only hear a squeaky voice saying ‘main khelega’. At this point, everyone in the theatre, burst into laughter. Sachin: A Billion Dreams brings you many such anecdotal incidents—some of which make you laugh, and others that bring a tear.

I, personally, got interested in cricket during 1995-96, mostly by watching the 1996 World Cup. I was almost 10. One of my aunts (unmarried), was heartbroken—her favourite cricket star had got married. The cricketer had ceased to be India's most eligible bachelor as he married Dr Anjali Mehta at 22.

The reach of cricket had become so widespread in the country that in 1996, ESPN for the first time, paid BCCI for the rights of telecast (after a lot of legal battles, of course). Before this, it was BCCI paying Doordarshan for telecasting the matches. Things were taking a turn for the good, as was Sachin’s career.

The film lets you reminisce the moments that you may have dreaded as a cricket lover. For instance, whenever Shane Warne bowls to Sachin. Anxiety would build up—will he be able to face that ball successfully? Sachin, too, dreaded that. He confesses so in the film.

My love-affair with cricket lasted only a couple of years. With the match-fixing issue in 2000, the charm of cricket was lost, at least for me. When Sachin talks about it in the film, he expresses the same fear—of cricket losing its followers due to such incidents. Many got back to watching cricket with their faith intact, I did too, but there was always suspicion of another match-fixing.

The defeat in the 2007 World Cup hit him hard. He locked himself in his house for seven days. It was a defence mechanism, he says. It was a message from Sir Viv Richards that encouraged him to get back to the game, and he did, to be a part of a winning moment in the 2011 World Cup. When the winning moment played on the screen, I could hear everyone talking—most of them remembering what they did after the victory. Some celebrated through the night, some had cried, and some couldn’t believe that it has happened. Sachin was relieved to see his dream come true.

The film, a documentation of Sachin Tendulkar’s life by James Erskine, can be watched for nostalgia. In an interview with THE WEEK earlier, Erskine said, “There have been many other sporting stories, on a sport person, or on a sport that people follow, but Sachin's story is so ingrained in everyone's mind that it makes it special.” It indeed does.

It is special because with every scene you watch on the screen, you relive the moments of your life, too, recalling what were you doing when Sachin was breaking another record or hitting one six after another.

This browser settings will not support to add bookmarks programmatically. Please press Ctrl+D or change settings to bookmark this page.

Related Reading