Kabir Khan adopts a strategically planned passport sequence to present the spectator to the cast members in the film’s first few minutes. He also uses dialogue and casual interactions to reveal that Indians did not expect India to win the World Cup. So when you discover this movie isn’t about achieving on a global scale, it’s about getting recognition.
Khan has contrasted actual photographs with reel images at every point of the movie, making one aware that he has substantially spent researching and reconstructing important events in Team India’s 1983 World Cup adventure. The film is not only about drama or sports – it makes a concerted effort to combine the two. To a considerable extent, it is beautiful.
India’s passion for cricket stems from how the 1983 national team took the wind out of the West Indies, an almost unbeatable cricket team at that time. Team India’s hope was low enough during the season that a broadcaster might quickly choose a match between the superpowers, West Indies & Australia, over an innings between India and Zimbabwe. So it was when Indian skipper Kapil Dev surprised the world with the Mongoose bat, and those iconic innings were not captured on camera.
If you’re going to see this movie, that moment alone will be worth the ticket price. Kapil Dev’s innings saved India’s day and earned the team a seat at the table and a great deal of appreciation from all corners. However, the reality that no one took the captain’s goal to win the Cup plays out at several moments throughout the film, reinforcing what finally motivated the team to put its best effort ahead.
Khan’s iconic ’83’ is about small pleasures, sufferings, brilliant achievements, agonizing defeats, inner transformations that each player endured. Their unique journeys and the road of assembling a team that might believe itself to overcome the world’s most muscular men in the gentleman’s game.
’83’ is about the success of an underdog team. As you go further, with each actor effortlessly portraying a great cricketer from the 1983 lineup, you get the impression that this film was produced with a beautifully written plot, reinforced by deep and embraced acting, and each department giving its technical perfection to it. While Ranveer plays the captain’s role in this movie, Saqib Saleem, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Ammy Virk, Hardy Sandhu, Jatin Sarna, Pankaj Tripathi, and Boman Irani are the ones who shine.
A special note could be how amazing team India’s 1983 World Cup adventure events were reconstructed for the movie. They mixed in seamlessly with the excitement and feelings. It must be awarded to the movie’s scriptwriters for weaving it in almost effortlessly because the film is based on actual events where there is minimal room for artistic liberty.
83 relies on the nationalist theme far more than was necessary. The movie’s spirit would have emphasized the argument that the rhetoric sequences were attempting to express. In addition, had there been some beautiful music, it might have provided a better plot. However, Khan sets a high standard for himself with this movie.
