Ashdoc's movie review---Gold

Akshay Kumar has become a master of tuning up the patriotic instincts of the audience . I remember watching the movie 'kabhi khushi kabhi gam' in 2001 in a theatre in Mumbai . In the movie Shah Rukh Khan's and Kajol's son is shown singing India's national anthem 'jana gana mana' in London . But no one in the audience stood up . Today before watching the movie ' Gold' the audience had already stood up for the national anthem once , because the national anthem is compulsorily played in theatres nowadays before the movie starts at least in my part of India . Yet as India is shown winning the gold medal in field hockey in the 1948 London Olympics and the national anthem of India is shown being played in the stadium , the whole audience spontaneously stood up a second time . The India of 2018 is different from the India of 2001....or maybe an Akshay Kumar movie evokes a different feeling from a Karan Johar movie....

Yeah , the movie is about newly independent India's first gold medal in Olympics , in the game of field hockey . Akshay Kumar plays Tapan Das , a Bengali who forgets his drinks only when the game of hockey is mentioned . He has seen the indian team win under British tutelage in the Berlin Olympics in 1936 to the chagrin of Hitler ( no less ) , and dreams of an independent India winning the gold again . But as India becomes independent , it is partitioned and many players either go to Pakistan or settle abroad . The team the Tapan has painstakingly built from scratch is dissolved in the flames of post partition riots when the team's prospective captain has to flee to Pakistan . Tapan returns to his drinks .

It is Samrat ( Kunal Kapoor ) the captain of the 1936 Olympics team who wakes Tapan from his drunken slumber by a promise to coach the team himself , something that he had rejected earlier . But Tapan also has to convince the financer ( Mr Wadia ) of the Hockey team to release the funds from his kitty for preparation of the team , against the advice of Mr Wadia's aide who is constantly at loggerheads with Tapan .

And Tapan and Samrat also have to weld the players and their differing personalities into a team and a winning combination . While one player ( acted by Amit Sadh ) who is son of a rich landlord does not brook any interference in his game and tries to reach the goal himself without teamwork , his counterpart is a sikh called Himmat Singh who has streak of anger within himself . When Tapan tries to keep Himmat away from matches to use as a trump card in the later stages of the tournament , Himmat's anger explodes in a fight that threatens to derail the indian team effort .

The British are shown to be the main rivals for winning the gold medal as the finals are played against them , while the Indians and Pakistanis cheer each other on in typical Bollywood style which seems far from reality . But the film does entertain inspite of this .

Akshay Kumar overacts in my opinion , but his wife is good . She is played by Mouni Roy wearing backless blouses and midriff showing saris . Photography and colours are okay . But the songs are loud and with Akshay Kumar dancing in a garish manner . Background music is decent however , and as I already said the film climaxes with 'jana gana mana' . Enough to give a patriot sheer goosebumps .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .