Amazing story; film could have been better

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2014)

The true story behind this film provides a lot of potential. Unfortunately, while aspects are enjoyable, the slow pace, predictability, dialogue and overacting by the cast take us down a few notches from what could have been a great sports film.
Highlights include slow pans of the Indian countryside, the wonder of the people in India found in baseball, and some of the training clips. Sadly, much of the film progresses down obvious paths, an example of wasted film (this could have been nicely condensed to a 90 minute quality film) are the reaction shots of relatives whose sons were headed to America to play a foreign sport coming from a village in the midst of quiet farmland.
The script could have included the reality that boys who enjoy rap and country/R&B music from a modern democracy (albeit one with 1+ Billion inhabitants and plenty of poor and those unable to obtain internet, university degrees, and thousands of other differences from the US/EU) don't act like 10 year olds when visiting the land with the most worldwide publicity.
Good thing the film was made. A shame it was Disnefied.