Chandu Champion Review: For some time now, there has been a trend of filmmakers making biopics of people who did a lot for the country in their lives and careers, but their achievements remained in oblivion. Recently, Ajay Devgan played a memorable role of football coach Syed Abdul Rahim in ‘Maidaan‘. Now in Kabir Khan’s ‘Chandu Champion’, Kartik Aaryan has brought the never-say-die story of Muralikant Petkar, India’s first Paralympic gold medalist. The film not only inspires you from start to finish, but also gives the best performance of Kartik Aaryan’s career.
Story of ‘Chandu Champion’
This story swinging between the past and the present begins with the old age of Muralikant Petkar (Kartik Aaryan), where Muralikant has come to the police station to register a case against the President of India with Inspector Sachin Kamble (Shreyas Talpade). At first, this old Murlikant is made fun of, but when he explains why he deserves the Arjuna Award today, after forty years, not only the people present there but also the audience are mesmerized.
The story goes into flashback, where Murlikant tells how in his teenage years he became obsessed with winning a gold medal in the Olympics. Then how he joined the army and became a boxing wonder boy and finally how his madness remained intact despite the lower body being paralyzed after receiving 9 bullets on his body in the 1965 war. After wrestling, joining the army and boxing, when the lower part of the body became useless, he made water his land and learned swimming to set a world record. On the basis of this passion and madness, he became the country’s first Paralympic gold medal winner.
He is accompanied in this journey by his brother Jognath Petkar (Aniruddh Dave), friend Jarnail Singh (Bhuvan Arora), his head Uttam Singh (Yashpal Sharma), coach Tiger Ali (Vijay Raj) and his ward boy Topaz (Rajpal Yadav). Muralikant, who was called a fake coin in his childhood, was ridiculed by being named Chandu Champion. But this fake coin brings a gold medal for the country. This player, who thought himself worthy of the Arjuna Award, is awarded the Padma Shri.
‘Chandu Champion’ Movie Review
In the story of Kabir Khan, a talented director of realistic and biopic cinema, the journalist (Sonali Kulkarni) says, ‘This story may seem unbelievable, but it needs to be told.’ Indeed, as the film progresses, this statement starts coming true. Chandu has a dialogue in the film, ‘Hasta Kaiko Hai, Main Kar Lega.’ And when he does this impossible task, then this thought gets firm in your mind that even if the world makes fun of you by calling you Chandu, Chomu or Pappu, but if you try continuously, you can shut everyone’s mouth.
Kabir Khan’s specialty is that he did not glorify this biopic anywhere. He has depicted the period of 1950 to 2018 very well in his story. The scenes of war and boxing ring are very good. He has beautifully depicted the internal struggle of Muralikant. The film does slow down at some places and the absence of any love angle in the film can also irritate the audience.
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It would have been better if some glimpse of Muralikant’s personal life, his wife and family were also shown, but in the end the film celebrates the spirit of never giving up and the audience comes out with a feel-good feeling. The music of the film could have been made more powerful, but Sudip Chatterjee’s cinematography has become worth watching.
Kartik Aaryan has given a brilliant performance as Murlikant Petkar. He spent two years and lost 18 kgs for the transformation of this wrestler, soldier, boxer and swimmer. His hard work is clearly visible on screen. Along with the physical transformation of being fat and thin, he has been successful in showing the nuances of emotions. Why only Kartik, every actor blossoms in his character. Be it Anirudh Dave in the role of brother or Bhuvan Bam in the role of friend. Vijay Raj leaves his mark in the role of Tiger Ali, while Shreyas Talpade adds light moments to the story as Inspector Sachin Kamble. Yashpal Sharma, Sonali Kulkarni and Rajpal Yadav have also done justice to their roles. The supporting cast is good.
