Dangal is about one man, Mahavir Singh Phogat's obsession/passion/dream to win a gold for his country in Wrestling and for himself, something which he could not do during his primes, reasons being lack of support, and hence has to give it a go with his children. He is so convinced that only boys can wrestle and win gold, he goes to the extreme of taking advice from villagers on how to "MAKE IT A BOY" and following superstitious beliefs like feeding black cows at 5 AM.
As this rat-a-tat goes on, he fails. All 4 of his tries result in girls, which not only makes him a laughing stock among his villagers, also his family. One day, as we all saw in the trailer, a family comes complaining that their girls beat up their two boys. Then he gets convinced that his girls can fulfill his dream and sets his sights on making them professional wrestlers.
He wakes them up the next day at 5 AM, gives them the pleasure of Golgappa one last time and then puts them to train. The girls get so exhausted with the training, which we are told through a very witty Haanikarak Bappu penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya, they complain to their Mother (a very beautiful and poignant Sakshi Tanwar), who drops a deaf ears and says they have to go through it till their dad says, complains to their dad about Lice in their hair (which Mahavir orders to be scissored off) and even shares their frustration with their friend at her Sangeet. Even we start to pity for them and just when our pity turns to anger at Mahavir, the Haanikarak Bapu is redeemed, through the girls' distraught friend who tells her dad doesn't even bother about her and is only focussed on getting her married off, they should be happy they have a Father who wants them to do something in their lives. The girls realize their mistake.
Aamir Khan as the no non sense Mahavir whose immaculate clarity in thoughts is brilliant even as his wife keeps telling him, she doesn't understand what his actions mean. Rather, Mahavir comes across as a man who lets his actions speak than he speaks of his actions. As so humorously put by his nephew (played by Riwik Sahore, who gets the best lines) in the movie during his narration of this epic, fairy tale journey, the suspense Mahavir generates till the end of his every action is unbearable. He methodical and sorted in his thoughts and ways to handle all the villagers' criticism, complaints from his family and of course, ways to win a wrestling match.
But its the girls who steal the limelight. The narration's limelight is on Geeta Phogat, the elder one and the two girls live up to it and how! Among the two, its the younger Geeta who steals the show with her childish yet Tashan-filled character, former comes to the front while in house and the latter when she is on the field competing against the boys who are stronger and older than her. We do feel sorry for Babita who is shown as more dedicated to her father's teachings and a staunch believer of his ways, yet grapples for screen space. But in whatever share of time she gets, both Babitas shine.
But the film is not about them, its about wrestling. Somehow Writer-Director Nitesh Tiwari (Chillar Party, Bhoothnath Returns) ensures we get the good dose of emotions, drama and with some magic cinematography by Sethu Sriram, great wrestling. Add to that the pitch perfect BGM by Pritam, the movie is complete.
Despite a tepid climax, in which the bollywood formula is invoked, we are left with sea of good thoughts, pride and another movie that comes across as a tribute to struggling sports persons, breaks the patriarchal society's notions and leaves us spell bound with another Aamir Khan perfection.
4.5 stars out of 5.
