83 movie review: This Kabir Khan film is a rousing celebration of India’s 1983 Cricket World Cup win

In 83, Ranveer Singh is a delight to watch. He’s got not just The Haryana Hurricane’s physicality and bowling style right, he has also nailed his dialect, the inability (and hence all the more the need) to speak English, the self-deprecating humor, the unassuming discipline, and the quiet resolve to win despite it all.

However, Khan’s biggest win is neither his choice of the subject nor the leading man. It’s what he has done with both of them that makes 83 such a glorious watch. The film could have easily been Kapil Dev’s biopic. But it’s not. It’s so much more. Instead of focusing on one man and his triumphs, Khan gives us a panoramic view of the Indian cricket team as it was in 1983. He spends enough time to give room to each key player’s personal conflicts and ambition, and the many struggles and hurdles that the team had to face as an underdog, a misfit in a clash of the titans. Sure, the scenes showing the men at play are high on drama and adrenaline, but it’s the ones that show their off-field banter and camaraderie that give 83 its beating heart.

The rest of the team is as terrific as its captain. Tahir Raj Bhasin as Sunil Gavaskar, Jiiva as Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Saqib Saleem as Mohinder Amarnath, Ammy Virk as Balwinder Sandhu, Harrdy Sandhu as Madan Lal, and Jatin Sarna as Yashpal Sharma are all in excellent form. Though Pankaj Tripathi as the team’s manager PR Man Singh and Deepika Padukone as Kapil Dev’s wife Romi Dev don’t have much to do, their presence bolsters the film’s stature.

83 focuses on the Indian cricket team’s journey through the 1983 World Cup. Everything else is shown purely to establish context, to show you just how monumental the victory was. Khan never loses sight of the central narrative. Keenly aware of where all the action is, he doesn’t want you to miss even a beat. Therefore, the majority of the film plays out on the cricket field, and dutifully captures all the key moments that have now become a part of our nation’s collective consciousness. This is precisely why, even at 161 minutes, the film doesn’t feel as long.

83 also plays masterfully with nostalgia and trivia. Khan ensures that he treats cricket lovers to little surprises (including but not limited to guest appurtenances and real footage) strewn carefully throughout the film. The film has been made with millennials and Gen Z in mind. A generation that grew up after India had established itself as a tour de force in international cricket. A generation that has always seen the men in blue as coveted celebrities. Hence, when a Balwinder Sandhu’s engagement is called off because of the uncertainty of his job and poor pay or when the players find it difficult to believe that they’d each be paid Rs. 25,000 if they win the World Cup, it makes you realise how far we have come in the last 38 years. It also makes you realise that had it not been for the 1983 win, cricket would not be what it is in India today.

In celebrating India’s first World Cup win, 83 celebrates underdogs, the will to win, and the fighting spirit of every person who is not taken seriously. 83 also stands out in how it does not glorify its protagonist, a hackneyed formula that sports dramas and biopics play up every chance they get. At no point in the film does Singh launch into a Chak De India-esque 70-minute speech. 83 humanises its heroes. It successfully shows that great people need not be extraordinary in everything that they do. That, for me, is the film’s real win.

In one scene, Romi corrects Kapil as he says “Do and die” instead of “Do or die.” Just then, a man sitting behind me in the theatre said out loud, “Isiliye apne se zyada padhi likhi ladki se shaadi nahi karni chahiye (this is why men shouldn’t get married to women who are more educated than them.)” I squirmed in my seat.

However, when The Haryana Hurricane hit his first six of the tournament, the ball breaking the pavilion’s glass, both of us stood up and clapped. I also heard him hoot as I did when India finally demolished the West Indies to create the kind of history that we are still talking about. As everyone in the theatre stood up and applauded as one during the film’s final moments, I understood once again the power of cricket and the power of cinema.