CineGoer.com - Bollywood Movie Reviews

Uninspiring Sports Flick

APK | November 27, 2007

Rating: ** (***** Very Good, **** Good, *** Fair, ** Average, * Bad)

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Cast: John Abraham, Arshad Warsi, Bipasha Basu, Boman Irani, Raj Zutshi, Dalip Tahil, Naveen Andrews, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Kushal Punjabi and Others.
Choreography: Saroj Khan.
Dialogues: Anurag Kashyap.
Director Of Photography: Attar Singh Saini.
Editing: Hemal Kothari.
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar.
Music: Pritam.
Production Designer: Nitin Desai.
Screenplay: Vikramaditya Motwane.
Story, Additional Screenplay & Additional Dialogue: Rohit Malhotra.
Director: Vivek Agnihotri.
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala.
Co-Producers: Zarina Mehta-Deven Khote.
Banner: UTV Motion Pictures-Bindass.
Release Date: 23rd November, 2007.

John Abraham and Bipasha Basu

For a sports flick, Goal is quite uninspiring. If you've already seen and liked movies such as Bend It Like Beckham and Iqbal and the recent Chak De India, then Goal feels like it's just a bad take-off on several good movies. It's all about the underdog, but here somehow, there is absolutely no empathy created for the Southall United. There seemed to have been little to expect from a director who had earlier given a movie like Chocolate ripped off from Usual Suspects. But then again Rakesh Mehra had directed Aks prior to Rang De Basanti, another Ronnie Screwvala production. This time however, there are no surprises.

Plot Southall United Football Club hasn't won a match in 25 years. The 30 years' lease is about to finish and if they cannot pay, the ground will not be theirs anymore. Shaan (Warsi) gets a coach, Tony (Irani) for their team, an ex-Southall player who went till the finals ages ago but did not win. Sunny Bhasin (Abraham), an arrogant but competent player who is denied entry into Aston Club because of his color, is brought into the team by Tony. The only trouble is that the rest of the players hate him, and Sunny himself has no team loyalty. They are in the bottom of their league, but if they don't win this time, the club will cease to exist.

Story, Screenplay and Direction Sunny feels more British than Indian, having been born and brought up there-didn't we see this in Namastey London a few months ago? The Gora calling an Indian, in this case Sunny, a 'Paki'-wasn't that episode over in Bend It Like Beckham? Rivalry between two main players-Chak De India's done that. There's even a football 'match' in the rain to make Sunny come to Southall United-but wait, we saw something like that in Dhoom, except with a basketball. So what's new in Goal? Football and a few shoddily directed, supposed to be emotional scenes. What a drag. The pep talk their coach gives them before the break is overdone while the pep talk before the last match is straight from Chak De India.

There are a few moments in the second half. For a brief couple of minutes, the movie picks up only to fall flat on its face again. Southall United is made up of a couple of out-of-shape beer-guzzling Desis, who hate the Goras. And all the Goras are anti-Desis. Racism is rampant and even the scenes which could have been believable are dragged mercilessly. The dialogue delivery of even good actors like Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi suffers. There's a lot of hamming.

Don't look for logic in Goal. When Sunny looks like he has a fracture on his nose, Rumana (Bipasha, who giggles and mouths stupid lines throughout) doesn't do a thing. After the last match, the illogical sequence involving Sunny and Sunny's nose makes you squirm in your seat. There are a couple of sub-plots and even a flashback, none of which hold your interest. The patriotism is neither convincing nor apt for the situation. All the British Nationals from Shaan to Sunny somehow don't have even a trace of an accent.

Arshad Warsi and John Abraham

Performances John Abraham as Sunny is quite convincing as is Arshad Warsi, who tries to make it through the shoddy script and even badly-written lines. It's not Boman Irani's best, to put it mildly. Bipasha has a terrible character and does a terrible (read irritating) job.

Raj Zutshi as a Sardar is the only one in the team who has a couple of lines and some funny moments. The actors enacting the roles of John's parents and the rest of the team are just okay, with a weak script and bad dubbing not helping them in the very least. The actress who played Warsi's wife has some appeal. Dalip Tahil justifies his role but an upcoming actress, a Diana look-alike puts you off by saying 'Sh*t' a few hundred times during the matches.

Music and Dance The title song is hummable, while Billo Rani is not bad. The background during the matches is good, but for all the other scenes it's mediocre.

Last Word The list of flaws of Goal can fill pages. It's so easy to like a sports flick, and the concept must have looked good on paper. But a weak script, terrible dialogues, badly written characters, unnecessary sub-plots..the list goes on, makes it a waste of time.