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It works as a sports film. It works as a film about the cascading dreams of a wannabe who should have learnt to run before deciding to fly. And it works as a vehicle to spotlight Harman's dexterity in front of the camera.

By Subhash K Jha  3 Stars
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Fri, 30 Jan 2009
Rating: 2 stars
Victory is a below average sports based film. It has its moments, but not enough to make it a thrilling watch. It's extremely predictable too.
- Ashok Nayak

Love story 2050 was one of the biggest disasters of 2008 and the worst possible start to Harman Baweja's career. The actor however makes a comeback with Victory, a movie on Cricket, directed by ad-filmmaker Ajitpal Mangat. His co-stars in the film are Amrita Rao, Anupam Kher, Gulshan Grover and many international cricketers.

Victory is the story of Ram Shekhawat (Anupam Kher), who saw an impossible dream for his son, Vijay Shekhawat (Harman Baweja) who hails from a small town of Jaisalmer and becomes India's latest world-class batting sensation. But it is the glamour and the glitter of this very demi-god status that makes the young, vulnerable small-town boy Vijay stray from his true vocation of cricket. Unfortunately this leads to a loss of focus and to a miserable drop in his performance. But by the time Vijay realizes the error of his ways, it is too late and he finds himself thrown out of the Indian cricket team. His father's dreams are shattered and he suffers a paralytic stroke. This tragedy awakens Vijay's conscience and sense of honor. He wants to redeem himself in the eyes of his father and every Indian. How he does it forms the rest of the story.

It's great to make a film on a sport that is followed by billions of people in India, at the same time it's quite risky, as the Indian public has a great amount of knowledge about the game, its players and officials. Victory suffers from severe flaws in the storyline. Some of the sequences are outright absurd.

- We have a star cricketer touching the feet of his coach, before walking out to bat.
- The Indian cricket team doesn't have a captain; at least there was no mention in the film!
- The hero either hits a six every ball and scores a century or gets out for a duck!
- He also gives up every bit of his earning, as he calls it 'paap ki kamai'. And suddenly a cricketer who is hailed as the richest sports person in the world not too long ago, hasn't got enough money for his surgery. Don't the players get match fees? Is that 'paap ki kamai' too?

This and several other illogical sequences make Victory, a pain to watch for a cricket fan. The movie starts off well, but falls apart completely post-intermission.

Hurman Baweja the lead actor of Victorytries his best. He looks the character and performs well throughout except in a few emotional sequences. His dialogue delivery has improved since Love Story 2050. Amrita Rao has nothing to do; she laughs and cries her way through. Gulshan Grover in a negative role is efficient. Anupam Kher is good in the second half.

From the many cricketers that make an appearance, its Harbhajan Singh and Brett Lee that make most impact. Navjot Singh Sidhu as a commentator is funny.

To sum up, Victory is a below average sports based film. It has its moments, but not enough to make it a thrilling watch. It's extremely predictable too.


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