Cricket is a religion in India and Sachin is it’s God. But there are few others who also achieved huge success to become inspiration for many youngsters like Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, VVS Laxman, Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Sourav Ganguly, Mohammad Azharuddin, etc. When you have so many number of people coming up with passion in a sport that is widely popular, then you tend to have films based on their lives or fictional stories that try to use the emotion that cricket produces for a compelling film.
Here are some of the Telugu films that are released based on cricket and you will find them fun to watch.
One of the best movies of Venkatesh and the actor delivered one of his best performances too. In the movie, he plays a cricketer, who is struggling to break into National Team and we get to see his life struggles, mainly, with his wife, as she suspects his friendship with a lady neighbour, Julie.
The movie tries to give the wife character also a very positive reason to feel unsecured by the closeness of her husband and his friend. But by the climax, she realises that she misinterpreted a relationship that is pure and just friendship. Tamil Director, Vikraman, who directed Venkatesh’s previous super hits like Sooryavamsham originally, in Tamil, made this movie directly in Telugu. Film takes cricket as an occupation of the main lead but portrays cricket scenes in an authentic way.
Jersey is the first movie that comes to our mind, these days, when people ask about “pure sports” genre films. The protagonist of the film is asked to take a moment and look at his life, with one simple request by his son, for a Jersey. The protagonist was an ex-crickter who gave up on his career as a cricketer due to health issues. But he doesn’t reveal about it to his family and as he looses his Government job due to a scam that he was forcefully and illegally named as a part off, he sits jobless at home.
This simple request from his kid forces him to mend his ways and he at the age of 36, when most retire, he starts playing cricket again. How his life turns out to be post this decision, makes for an inspiring and emotional journey. Natural Star Nani’s performance as a cricketer is the backbone of this Gautham Tinnanuri’s directorial. You might have heard about the movie several times and even watched it already. Try to watch it again, for your love of the sport.
Majili is Akkineni Naga Chaitanya’s biggest hit movie and the movie that re-stated the fact that Samantha Akkineni – Chaitanya make a great on-screen pair. Well, why not? They are the best off-screen romantic pair among the young couple of TFI too. The movie became a huge hit because of the inexplicable chemistry between the leads.
It had some of the best moments in the lead pair’s career as a couple on-screen. Before this, they acted in films like Ye Maaya Chesave and Manam. The lead protagonist in the film is a failed cricketer and lover, too. From his self-loathing life of sorrows, again cricket saves him as he is forced to coach his first love’s daughter. He even amends his relationship with his wife in the process of adopting the kid, who has now become an orphan. This film delivers less on the sports background but has emotional value to watch it in repeats.
Mohankrishna Indraganti is one director from TFI, who wants to make a movie in every genre. He made this sports based school kids film, with Sumanth as the lead. Sumanth plays a cricket coach in the movie, who takes up the job as a PE Teacher at Golconda High School to turn potential players into winners.
The school has an history for bowing out from the tournaments at the early stages and the new boys team has all the potential but lack discipline and good sense. Sumanth tries to teach them and train them about being positive and believing in one’s ability to win. Swathi Reddy, popularly known as Colors Swathi, acted as the leading lady in the film. The climax portions of the film are not to be missed.
Not many films have been made on female cricket in Indian Cinema. Films like Chak De India, tried to talk about the importance of Hockey as a sport with dire situation of women hockey as the main theme. Chak De, tried to say that cricket is not the only sport that Indians should concentrate on.
Well, Kousalya Krishnamurthy tries to talk about a female cricketer raising above all odds with the help of her family, mainly her cricket loving father, from a village to become International player. Her speciality is to bowl mystery spin and her coach uses her as a weapon in the crucial game, which makes her a star. Film tries to talk about farmer’s issues and women’s cricket at the same time. Father Krishnamurthy, represents farmers and Kousalya, represents women sports players from rural and economically backward background. Performances Aishwarya Rajesh and Rajendra Prasad make the movie, an easy one-time watch. Producer of the Tamil original movie and Tamil star hero, Sivakarthikeyan’s performance as a coach is unforgettable too.
You may have liked the movie or you might have hated it. But Dear Comrade is a film that you cannot ignore. It is not a film that one can dismiss as a pure work of laziness as the craft shown by the team in executing the film is commendable. Performances by lead cast, Vijay Devarakonda and Rashmika Mandanna are also top notch. The movie pacing and screenplay have become it’s biggest issues.
Anyways, going away from conventional storylines, the movie tries to give female lead character a goal and portrays her as a cricketer. This is the uniqueness of the film but the twists and turns in the story seem to dilute the impact of the story that the director, Bharat Kamma, wanted to narrate with all his passion. Watch it for the passion that the young team has put-in to make this movie and cricket scenes are well executed too.
It is a dubbing movie, but still it counts as the movie released in Telugu and became a huge hit. This film is memorable not just because it is based on the life story of M.S. Dhoni, a world Cup winning Indian captain and the man who pulled off some incredible chases or defended low scores highly successful on numerous occasions. But because of the performance that Sushanth Singh Rajput has given in the role of MSD.
Losing Sushanth is a major loss for our Film Industry and if you wonder why? Just watch the film, again. Dhoni might have lost his touch and you might think of him as one of the reasons for India’s lackluster performance in World Cup, 2019 especially for losing Semi-Finals, but he has done for more good for Indian Cricket, as a captain. So, watch this film to know what makes him and for the performance of Sushanth Singh Rajput.
Impact of cricketer Dhoni on Indian cricket is equal to the impact that Sachin Tendulkar as created. Equal in terms of inspiring a generation to think that cricket is not a “rich-man’s sport” like Golf. Dhoni’s meteoric rise as a wicket-keeper batsman in popularity and his calmness under extreme pressure as a captain made many youngsters look at their abilities to perform in the sport at highest level than worry about monetary issues.
But conventional parents, who try to guide their children towards safer options can’t easily accept cricket as a career option for their children. This battle of generations is shown in the movie by Prakash Raj, as a director and actor. Akash Puri as a child actor proved his mettle as a performer in the movie and it is titled, Dhoni as a tribute to your cricketer. Movie tries to show a conventional society fearing parent’s objection to unconventional choices of their children in an emotional way.
The movie is the Telugu dub of Tamil movie, Chennai 600028. Movie is a pure cricket based fun film that talks about the gully cricket played in our neighborhoods. These days, we are advised to not play outside due to the fear of Covid pandemic but once, the threat subsides, we may see again gully cricket tournaments and bet matches happening like they show in the film.
Venkat Prabhu delivers heavy doses of comedy that we normally see happening during such matches and the rivalry that builds between youngsters from two adjoining neighbourhoods connects with us so much that we get highly involved in the film’s climax portions. Watch the film for the pure unadulterated fun it offers with gully cricket as the principal theme.
When we are talking about cricket based films, we cannot forget the first attempts to make a movie with lead being a cricket player. Raju Sundaram, the famous dance choreographer from Indian Cinema and brother of Prabhu Deva, played the lead role in the film to try his luck as a lead actor. Simran played the role of his leading lady. During this movie, the rumours about their love affair have become top headlines of gossip tabloids.
The movie doesn’t get the cricket portions as perfectly some others in the list but it is a fun film to watch and laugh about. Some films come under the category, “so bad that we can enjoy them” andy this is easily one of such films. We are just noting it here, for people to remember that there were such attempts too, at making cricket based movies in South Indian Cinema.
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