Review of 83, directed by Kabir Khan

I find it so fascinating that I ended up watching this movie on a flight. I have never watched cricket in my life, and if we’re going to be frank, if I watched it I would have no idea what the rules are or even what the objective is. Maybe I would catch on quickly, but I still don’t see myself wanting to watch cricket.

I was on a flight a while back, and it was to California. I was going to visit relatives on Delta, and I was trying to find something to do on the little monitor on the screen in front of me. I have a habit of doom scrolling through the movie options when I am on flights, and that’s exactly what happened here.

Somehow, I landed on 83, which was towards the end of the list of movies. I remember being confused at the fact I had never heard of this movie, and looking at the poster, I realized pretty quickly that it was an Indian movie.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is how I pressed play and entertained myself for quite a bit.

Here’s my review of the movie!

The story of India’s cricket team and their rise in the Cricket World Cup.

We begin this film with archival footage, where the Indian cricket team is facing off against the West Indies at the 1983 World Cup Final. No one ever expected them to get to this point, but now they’re in the final and have nothing to lose at this point.

The film then pivots to the fictionalized version of what went down. In Mumbai, the head of the Indian cricket gets a letter inviting the team formally to the World Cup. They’re going to go, but some drama happens when the captain is replaced with Kapil Dev, and we have some new squad members who’ve been playing in England.

As the team preps and heads out to England, they spot the popularity of the West Indies team, which has photographers coming to them as they arrive in town. The Indian team is neglected, and no one is expecting them to get anywhere in the competition. Even during their warm-up matches, they do terrible with their performance.

However, during a press conference, team member Dev declares that the team is going to win the entire tournament. He also gives an inspirational speech later to the team after they meet the Queen and take a picture with her. He tells them that they’re going to do great things, and then they are placed in a group with Australia, Zimbabwe, and the West Indies.

During their first match, they take down the West Indies, and they see this as a major win. The next match is against Zimbabwe, which they also win. Indians are thrilled and their fans are starting to show up eagerly, but Team India is struck down in their final match against Australia.

They are then placed against West Indies again, which turns out to be a disaster. India loses the match, which was a pretty brutal one, and then the team thinks that they are never going to win again. But as their bus cuts through crowds of cheering West Indies fans, they see a little boy in the group with a DIY Indian flag, which emotionally impacts them.

The next match is Zimbabwe, and if India loses, they are out of the tournament. The group’s wives show up in order to support them, and then they win the match, allowing India to keep going in the competition. Some drama happens behind the scenes between members of the team, but then they have to prepare for their match against Australia.

They win easily, allowing them to continue yet again. It is the first time India has ever qualified for the semi-finals, and Prime Minister Gandhi demands that every village and town be able to watch this record-breaking run.

The semi-final is against England. and it looks like at first India will not keep going. However, the team rallies together to take down the English team, and the final will be against West Indies. Yet again, things look rough in the first innings of the match, but then things start to change for India.

After some tense moments, India wins, and the team begins celebrating with the Indian fans. We then cut to one of the actual members during the credits along with photographs.

Overall Thoughts

As I mentioned before, I know nothing about cricket. I still don’t really after watching this movie, but I think this was a compelling movie even without the emotional connection or knowing anything about cricket.

I think I learned a lot, and maybe when I move to India later in the year I’ll go to a cricket match and try to learn something more about the sport while I’m abroad. This movie was a little too long for me though, which is a common thread for some Indian and Hindi films.

That said, I’m glad I watched it. I learned a lot.

Go watch it if you haven’t already and want to!