Simple, honest and heartwarming if not astonishing

Rating: 5/10 (30 January 2015)

Million Dollar is a charming sport-biopic about how two Indian village youngsters Rinku Singh (Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh Patel(Madhur Mittal) transform into American major league baseball players with the help of sports agent JB Bernstein (John Hamm). While the story is undoubtedly predictable and formulaic (also being a Disney production), the positive thing the movie offers are its lovable characters and light atmosphere not stressing the viewer much.
The Million Dollar Arm, a contest put forth by JB, to find baseball talent in India where sport of cricket is a religion. Even if there are similarities in cricket and baseball, the two guys who eventually do the best had ironically no interest in cricket whatsoever. Anyways after topping the contest, Rinku and Suraj are flown to U.S. for training with Tom House (Bill Paxton). Along with them is Amit (Pitobash Tripathy) who is Indian local baseball fanatic who also acts as translator for both Rinku and Suraj. The boys being transferred into an amusing alien environment of U.S. , JB finds it hard to get these three used to the surroundings. JB also has tough time balancing his personal and professional life. The boys who are not yet adjusted,find it difficult to give even a justifiable performance and JB starts getting furious. Then we have the regular mentor-student conflicts where in the end both parties end up respecting and valuing each other.
Even if the story did not have anything new, but it did have interesting and enjoyable character with whom I could easily connect. Both Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi fame) and Madhur Mittal (Slumdog Millionaire fame) give a justifiable performance as two young Indian villagers who find their destiny. John Hamm was okay while Bill Paxton is always a delight to watch. But the character I liked the most was Amit with a innocently funny act by Pitobash. He was key in bridging the gap between the boys and JB. A.R. Rahman's score with an Indian touch was very effective even if it wasn't his best. The movie captures the Indian culture very pleasingly. I felt really inspired to see how these ordinary boys became stars. Overall despite having nothing stellar plus being heavily predictable, Million Dollar Arm was worth a one time watch thanks to is charming characters plus feel-goodish story.
RATING: [2.5/5]