Entertains and Inspires, An Epic Movie for all Ages

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2016)

Wow - if I could sum up Dangal in one word, and that wow goes especially to the choreography of the wrestling matches between the character Geetha and her opponents and also on the visual capture of these matches. In terms of sports action in Bollywood, I loved Chakde India but Dangal simply outshined it in that aspect. Maybe I can say that the sports action in Dangal is as good as those from Hollywood, at least in terms of sheer suspense and thrill factor. Dangal is even like a beginner's lesson on what wrestling is for viewers :D and that's because there are scenes in the movie that explains(via Aamir's character to his kids) in an uncomplicated, interesting manner on how the points work or explains the various attack or defense moves.
Besides the excellent sports choreography(the Commonwealth Games semifinals match is my favorite) and the cinematography, the performances and also the direction deserve a big applause. Aamir gives an aptly controlled performance as the centrestage actually belongs to the character of Geetha. If he'd not taken a backseat whenever required to let the other actors shine in some key scenes, this movie would have stumbled. Fatima Sana Sheikh as the older Geetha gets the role of a lifetime. She must have trained very hard to do justice to such a physically demanding role and her emotions are spot on too but if I were to choose just one performance in the movie that's my favorite, I would say Zaira Wasim as the younger Geetha. What a natural child actor! And of course, the support cast is wonderful like Sanya Malhotra as the older Babita(sis of Geetha), Suhani Bhatnagar as the young Babita and Ritwik Sahore(young Omkar, the Phogat sisters' cousin). The child actors, I must mention again, Zaira Wasim, Ritwik Sahore and Suhani Bhatnagar deserve lots of appreciation for their acting.
Of course, as it is a movie, the makers take liberties to exaggerate a few moments or scenes or even bring shades of grey to few characters which is all OK but at what point does one limit it? Geetha's national coach in the movie is shown to have shades of grey, exaggerated grey actually, so much so that PR Sondhi(who was the national coach of Geetha & Babita in real life) remarked that his reputation has been hurt by what's shown in the movie and they should have not taken such liberties with the character at his expense. I agree. Otherwise I'd have rated this movie a 9 or even a 10(it's still epic) but I downgrade it to 8 as a symbolic protest to how some of the characterisation was done.
Verdict: It is "bollywood-ish" but still entertains, thrills and inspires in equal measure. Bring your family to the theatre too, and also it runs with English subtitle for a wider audience. As soon as the DVD is out, I intend to buy and watch it again. A must see despite any flaws.