Karthik Aaryan pulled off a career-best performance

The long-forgotten but incredible story of India’s first Paralympic gold medalist and Padma Shri recipient Murlikant Petkar comes alive on the big screen. Chandu is the championAn obvious and somewhat over-the-top biopic with Karthik Aryan as the enthusiastic title hero in the lead.

Chandu is the championWriter-director Kabir Khan’s second sports film in a row (after 83), intense emotions, high drama, anthemic music, athletic action and comic interludes are in a blender to capture an unprecedentedly eventful life.

Murlikant’s life was one that saw more twists and turns than any average life. Indeed, the things that Murlikant Petkar attempted and achieved as a young man were actually anything but ordinary. Does the film do justice to him? Yes, for the most part.

Murlikant’s journey from a village in Maharashtra’s Sangli district to a swimming pool in Heidelberg at the 1972 Summer Paralympics to a boxing arena at the 1964 International Military Games in Tokyo is a thrilling tale of grit, determination and sheer confidence.

Chandu is the champion The cinematic act could work better if it were a touch less melodramatic and a little more realistic. Islampur’s portrayal of the budding wrestler and his interactions with his friends, family and mentor are often marred by stress.

To be fair, however, Chandu is the champion Calm and enjoyable. It wasted no time hitting his strap. Such was the nature of life that it brought to the screen that there was no time to breathe. With the lead actor getting into the swing of things with all his might, the exercise isn’t weighed down as other such films are by clichéd tropes of underdog dramas.

The rhythm of the film is clearly dictated by the flow of Murlikant’s topsy-turvy life. It flies from one set of experiences to another as the hero faces and overcomes challenges and obstacles on his way to extraordinary achievements that put him in the record books.

In the opening moments of Chandu Champion, a wise and somewhat bitter Murlikant Petkar arrives at a police station with his son to file a formal complaint against the President of India for not awarding him the Arjuna Award.

The skeptical SHO, Inspector Sachin Kamble (Shreyas Talpade), is understandably dismissive at first but is soon drawn in by Murali’s account of his dramatic ups and downs. Flashbacks provide the film with its narrative core while rounding out the portrait of a man who will never die.

Chandu is the champion It is an overtly and inevitably masculine film. The two sports it showcases—wrestling and boxing—were officially off limits to women until the late 1980s, and even later became Olympic disciplines for female competitors.

Much of the film takes place in the 1960s and early 1970s, when women were nowhere near the wrestling or boxing arena, let alone it. The male protagonist has no romantic interest to boot. So love has no place in the film.

A large group of young men on their way to join the Indian Army boarded a train when Murali took a break between singing and dancing. The peppy musical set piece, composed by Pritam, gives director of photography Sudeep Chatterjee an opportunity to pull out the stops and showcase his proven qualities.

In another place, a long and important battle scene is filmed without a cut, the cinematographer at his best capturing the rough and tumble of battle. As for the rest of the film, editor Nitin Baid gives it a pace that ensures that Chandu Champion never feels prolonged.

Chandu is the champion An all male subject. Well, almost. The film has three secondary female characters – Murlikant’s mother (Hemangi Kavi), an Indian television journalist in Tokyo (Bhagyashree Borse) and another present-day writer (Sonali Kulkarni) who pulls the man from oblivion more than four decades after his historic Paralympics. achievement

Unlike other sports dramas, Chandu is the champion Obviously not limited to a single Olympic discipline. Murlikant Petkar, a timid and bullied boy who fought insults and skepticism to emerge from anonymity, started as a wrestler, became a boxer in the Indian Army and finally, after being seriously injured and paralyzed from the waist down in the 1965 India-Pakistan war. 50 meters freestyle swimming.

The three sports arenas – a rural wrestling match, a Military Games boxing ring and an Olympic swimming pool – have different color palettes. Each requires a certain rhythm and technique. This helps Chandu Champion avoid visual and tonal monotony.

Murlikant, who idolized freestyle wrestler Dara Singh, strayed into wrestling as he believed the sport could help him realize his dream of winning an Olympic gold medal. She is mocked by her peers and elders but, as life takes her in a new direction, she finds men who see her potential and agree to groom her.

As a boy, Murali witnessed the hero’s welcome given to bronze medalist wrestler KD Yadav on his return from the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. The sight made him want to do better. Murali defies the odds and finds a foothold in the village’s wrestling arena, where he invites trouble by defeating the son of the village’s strongest man.

Later goons chased him out of the village. Murali ends up in the army and becomes a boxer because wrestling is not a defense force sport. He trains under a tough task master, Tiger Ali (Vijay Raj) and quickly acquires exceptional skills.

Under Tiger Ali’s tutelage, Murali goes from being the “Chandu Champion”, a derogatory term given to him by his village naysayers (chandu is short for ‘loser’), to emerging as “Little Tiger” – as his boxing coach dubs him – and “Indian wonder boy” – a title given to him by the Japanese media when he made a remarkable mark at the 1964 International Military Games in Tokyo.

And then the war of 1965 began. Murali was hit by nine bullets but miraculously survived. His life changes in more ways than one when he recovers in an army hospital, finds a new friend, Topaz (Rajpal Yadav) in the medical ward and Tiger Ali comes to counsel him again.

Karthik Aaryan sheds his free-spirited Gadabout costume and gets into the skin of a character that demands a lot on the actor. Aryan gives his all to the physically correct role and delivers a career best performance.

Chandu is the champion It’s a one-man show but trust Vijay Raj to turn the supporting role into something much more than that. When she is on screen, Kartik Aaryan has to confess to her. But the rest of the film has lead leads from the front.

Chandu is the championThat which celebrates an unprecedented victory in the face of great odds, must negotiate its own share of obstacles. It is tripped by a few of them but manages to tide over the rest.

Chandu is the champion May be a mixed bag but it never stops being uplifting.