‘Gold’ Movie Review: This Akshay Kumar starrer is a perfect watch for Independence Day

Directed by: Reema Kagti
Produced by: Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Amit Sadh, Mouni Roy, Kunal Kapoor, Vineet Kumar Singh, Nikita Dutta, Sunny Kaushal
Duration: 2 hours 34 minutes
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 3 stars

Helmed by Reema Kagti, ‘Gold’ is a story of how dreams of one generation are fulfilled by other. The dream is to win the Olympic Gold for independent India in 1948 Summer Olympics. The film is a journey of how, despite facing several hardships, Indian Hockey team fulfilled their long cherished dream of defeating England in their homeland.

Plot

Tapan Das (played by Akshay Kumar) is the general manager of the hockey team that plays for British India. Tapan and his team harbours the dream of playing for free India one day. The dream, though difficult, is not impossible. First, the country had to fight for its independence and then face several other hardships. Tapan and his team win the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin where they are ill-treated even by the Germans. Hence Tapan Das along with his team take an oath that one day they will play for their own independent nation-India and proudly stand up for their own nation’s national anthem.

Tapan Das, (though is notorious for his drinking habits) gives his everything to scout talent to make a hockey team for India. Later when independent India decides to go for the Olympics, its plan are paralysed owing to the country’s partition which leads to its teammates getting divided between Pakistan and India. Tapan once again take up the challenge of bringing together yet another team, but does he succeed? Is India able to defeat the Britishers in their own country? Well, to find out the answers to these questions you will have to go and watch the film.

Performances

Akshay Kumar is rightly cast in the role of Tapan Das. The actor perfectly justifies the madness and the passion the character has not only for Hockey but also for the dream of making India proud by winning its first Olympic gold. Kunal Kapoor maturely plays Samrat the captain of team India (who wins the Olympic under British India). Other actors from the stellar ensemble cast namely Amit Sadh, Vineet Kumar Singh and debutantes Mouni Roy and Nikita Dutta, everyone does justice to the characters assigned to them respectively. One newcomer that stands out is Sunny Kaushal as Himmat Singh.

Direction and cinematography

Filmmaker Reema Kagti, who has earlier given us films like ‘Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd’ and ‘Talaash’, fairly lives up to the expectations. Reema who has also written the film’s story along with Rajesh Devraj, brings out an interesting tale. Now, though the makers of the film claim that it is a fictional story set against the backdrop of real events, so we don’t know how much is the truth and what part is fictional. The cinematography of the film is done by  Álvaro Gutiérrez and it is commendable.

Music
The background score is great and suits the tone of the film. But except for one or two songs, rest of the songs seem to be forcefully incorporated in the storyline. Also, there’s no song that stands out.
What’s Good

The story and the performance of each and every character are really commendable. There’s no one who doesn’t give his/her hundred percent to the film and the ensemble cast too is aptly cast. The story which we hardly knew helps to understand the scenario under which India won its first Olympic gold medal.

What’s Bad

The length of the film makes it a very long watch. Some forced song sequence could have easily been edited out. Akshay’s Bengali accent mysteriously goes missing in few scenes.

Final Verdict
‘Gold’ conveys the age-old message of ‘United We Stand Divided We Fall’, but it brings out some hidden stories of India’s history (again it’s questionable what is fact and what is fiction). You can definitely go for this film along with your family members as it will make for a perfect film to watch this Independence Day.

Watch the trailer here: