Top 5 Bollywood movies based on sports

Every Indian is an expert on two topics: Movie and Sports. They know why a film flopped or Indian team lost a cricket match in England. India houses a large number of movie and sports fanatics and this makes Sports and Bollywood a winning combo. A few days ago, we had an interesting poll on sportskeeda’s facebook page. The question of the poll was “Which is the best Bollywood movie based on sports?”. From that originated the idea to make a list of Top 5 sports based Bollywood movies. Which movie will take the award in this category? Lagaan or Chak De! India? Read on to find out!

#5: Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal (Football)

The movie was about the south Asian community based in UK and their struggle to play football at the top level. John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani were the lead actors in the film. The story of the movie is about the Southall United football club which is composed of South Asian players only. The club which was once a very successful club is now facing difficulties in getting sponsors. John Abraham is a star player who is discriminated because of his skin colour. He alongwith Boman Irani (coach of the Southall team) and Arshad Warsi (Captain) scripts success stories for the team and brings glory to the south Asian community living in England.

The movie was far from impressive and a dud at box office. But this was perhaps the most serious attempt by the Bollywood to make a movie on football.

#4: Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (Cycling)

This story of love, revenge, hard work, determination and self belief is built around a popular cycle race event in the town of Dehradun. Winning this annual event is a matter of pride for the colleges of Dehradun. Aamir Khan (in the lead role) is forced to participate in the race representing the Modern college when his elder brother, a potential winner of the race, gets injured due to the evil intentions of his opponents. Aamir, a carefree youngster, rises up to the occasion and practices hard to win the race for his college and most importantly for his brother. On the day of race, his opponent from an elite college called Rajput College tries every trick to strike Aamir off the race but thanks to sheer determination, Aamir wins the race at the end.

The movie was a huge success and people still remember the movie for its brilliant story, performances of the actors and great sound tracks.

#3: Iqbal (Cricket)

The movie depicts the story of a deaf and mute youth ‘Iqbal’ (played by Shreyas Talpade) who wishes to be a successful bowler. While Iqbal’s father doesn’t support his son’s dreams his mother and sister help him on many occasions to pursue his dreams. After getting rejected by a famous cricket academy, Iqbal seeks the help of Mohit (Nasseruddin Shah) who was once a great cricketer. Mohit trains Iqbal and Iqbal gets a chance to play for a weak Ranji team. The team finally manages to win the Ranji Trophy riding on the magnificent bowling of Iqbal. Iqbal overcomes all the hurdles and gets selected for the national team.

The movie was received well by the public. It scores over other movies because of its motivational value.

#2: Lagaan (Cricket)

A classic Bollywood movie which will always be remembered as one of the best movies made in India. It was a huge hit in 2001 when it was released. It was also in the race for an OSCAR award in the ‘Best movie in Foreign Language’ category. Lagaan means ‘Land Tax’ in Hindi. The Britishers gave an unique challenge to the villagers of the drought hit Champaner. A cricket match was proposed between the British officers and the villagers. As per the challenge, the villagers would be exempted from paying lagaan (land tax) if they won the match. Otherwise the villagers would be made to pay tax three times the original value. The villagers led by Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) accepted the challenge. The villagers had no knowledge of the game cricket but were helped by the sister of a powerful British officer. She decided to help as she was impressed by Bhuvan’s courage to take on the British in their own game. The match was a nail biting affair and the match went down to the wire. The villagers won the match at the end when Bhuvan hit the last ball for a six.

This movie directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar was successful to strike a chord with the audience.

#1: Chak De! India (Hockey)

Perhaps the most popular movie made on India’s national sports Hockey, Chak De! India tops our list. This is perhaps the only list where Hockey is ahead of Cricket in India. Made under a big banner like Yashraj movies, this movie was able to raise the nationalistic emotions of the Indian youth. The Chak De title song is still some what like the national song as it is played every time India wins a sporting event (even if not hockey). The story of this movie is about a former hockey player Kabir Khan (played by Superstar Shahrukh Khan) who was demonised as a traitor when India lost a hockey match against Pakistan due to Kabir’s mistake. He later comes back and assumes the position of the coach of the national women hockey team. The women team was neglected always despite having a talented bunch of players. Kabir after assuming the post tries to bring discipline in the team. His efforts to uplift the team’s performance works as the team finally wins the Gold medal at the World Cup.

Do you agree with this list? Share your opinion in the comments section.