Aamir Khan in a scene from Langaan. Courtesy Aamir Khan Productions
Aamir Khan in a scene from Langaan. Courtesy Aamir Khan Productions
Aamir Khan in a scene from Langaan. Courtesy Aamir Khan Productions
Aamir Khan in a scene from Langaan. Courtesy Aamir Khan Productions

Top five Bollywood cricket movies

With the first phase of the Indian Premier League ending in the UAE, we look at the top 5 Bollywood films with a cricket theme - interspersed, of course, with love triangles and song-and-dance routines.

Panna Munyal

April 29, 2014

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With the first phase of the Indian Premier League ending in the UAE today, we look at the top 5 Bollywood films with a cricket theme - interspersed, of course, with love triangles and song-and-dance routines.
1. Lagaan (2001)
Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker; starring Aamir Khan and Gracy Singh
The year is 1893 and India is under colonial rule. In a bid to waive a financially crippling tax, the inhabitants of Champaner village accept a challenge to compete against the British in a game of cricket - a sport then unknown to Indians. The motley village team includes the mute village drummer, a poultry farmer, a horse farrier and a fortune teller.
Trivia alert: Abhishek Bachchan was offered a role in the film but turned it down. His loss - the film won a bunch of Filmfare, Screen and International Indian Film Academy Awards honours that year and was also nominated for an Academy Award.
2. Iqbal (2005)
Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor; starring Shreyas Talpade and Naseeruddin Shah
Iqbal is deaf and mute, the son of a worrywart farmer and obsessed with cricket. Iqbal's sister goes to great lengths to support his passion for the game and, after some cajoling, Mohit, a former cricketer cheated out of glory years ago, agrees to help train him, often enlisting buffaloes - named after members of the Indian cricket team - as shot-perfecting bullseyes.
Trivia alert: The Indian cricketing great Kapil Dev has a brief cameo in the film, which won two National Film awards.
3. Kai Po Che! (2013)
Directed by Abhishek Kapoor; starring Sushant Singh Rajput, Amit Sadh and Rajkummar Rao
Ishaan, a former district-level cricketer, starts a sports shop and cricket academy with two friends. They spot talent in a young boy, Ali, who likes cricket but resents that he has to practise hard under Ishaan's eagle eye.
Trivia alert: The film is based on Chetan Bhagat's novel The 3 Mistakes of my Life. Bhagat's son, Ishaan, played a small role in it.
4. Patiala House (2011)
Directed by Nikhil Advani; starring Akshay Kumar, Rishi Kapoor and Anushka Sharma
Gattu and his family have been living in England's Southall for generations. When Gattu is offered a place on the British cricket team, his father refuses to let him have anything to do with the "white community".
Trivia alert: Advani filmed some of the cricket sequences in 3-D but later changed his mind.
5. Hattrick (2007)
Directed by Milan Luthria; starring Paresh Rawal, Kunal Kapoor, Rimi Sen and Danny Denzongpa
This film that centres on the chief doctor of a mental hospital in Delhi has three cricket-related narratives: Saby constantly ignores his wife Kashmira because he's obsessed with cricket; the janitor Hemu is intent on securing British citizenship but ends up cheering when England loses a wicket in an India-England match, right under the nose of his visa officer; David Abraham is admitted to hospital where his doctor refuses to let him watch cricket on television.
Trivia alert: The cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle appears as himself; John Abraham features in the song Wicket Bacha.
pmunyal@thenational.ae

On Women's Day
US PGA Championship in numbers

1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.

2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.

3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.

4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.

5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.

6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.

7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.

8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.

9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.

10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.

11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.

12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.

13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.

14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.

15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.

16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.

17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.

18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).

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