"Dangal" and the stream of thoughts that followed

Long ago I saw "Argo" and completely loved it. Later I figured that Ben Affleck in his cinematic pursuit had taken a few liberties with facts. For some time I grappled with the morality of such liberties and came across this beautiful feature about "The sound of music".

I'm going to watch the feature again but what I remember was a feeling of amazement about the effort spent to make Maria look so "free spirited" and the Von Trapp kids so "adorably innocent". Those liberties with facts and stylized visuals made the story come alive. Now that I think of it, the simple truth is that I would have found "Argo" perhaps a lot less engaging minus Affleck's liberties.

Coming to Dangal I totally enjoyed the movie. The movie is pitted as a fight between the traditionalist approach represented by Aamir Khan's character and his antagonist the national coach who has a rather technical approach to the sport. The storytelling exaggerates these positions to create the melodrama and the end result is rather entertaining and full marks to Aamir Khan the film-maker.

Post that I started thinking and the key ideas can occupied my mind space were:
  1. Competing at the International level involves excellence: Someone capable of winning an Olympic medal is an embodiment of excellence. Such a person has transcended the ideologies of traditions and technique and has a found a balance that works for him. Such a person would need an army of support working together and disagreements with the head coach like that represented in the movie would be disastrous for his performance on field.
  2. 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games: I experienced the games and it was amazing. Few decades down the line if everything goes well then perhaps we in India will appreciate the good that happened because of those games.
  3. Incentives for Sportspersons: Our incentives have a rather winner takes all approach. Perfect for the times when we hardly get any Olympic medals. However when get more medals then perhaps we need to devise incentives to create more balanced individuals rather than unidimensional celebrity champions.

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