Going for gold

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2018)

Dangal is the name of a wrestling competition in India. Former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan) discovers that his two daughters have a natural skill in grappling as they beat up two boys who were teasing them.
So he decides to train them as wrestlers and enter them into wrestling competitions where they have to fight others boys as competition for girls did not exist. In the face of ridicule his daughters impress the onlookers with their strength and skill.
Dangal inspired by films such as Rocky and The Karate Kid have training montages set to music, a stern father who coaches them to a strict rigorous schedule. The father then loses his daughters to a national coach who trains the daughters for international competitions but gets the girls to unlearn what their father has taught them which causes a crisis of confidence.
The film has good performances from actresses Fatima Sana Shaikh (Geeta Phogat) and Sanya Malhotra (Babita) who looks to have done a lot of intense training for their roles. Aamir Khan's character is too one-note with very little shade to his performance and I think the film suffers as a result along with the long running time which is par for the course with Hindi films.
This is an inspiring film of the rise of female wrestling in a patriarchal society as the now young women enter the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and go for gold with their father helping them from the sidelines much to the irritation of the Indian team coach. The film is based on true events.