‘Chandu Champion’ review: A resonant portrait of a boy uninterrupted
Kabir Khan’s biopic of para-athlete Murlikant Petkar is led by Kartik Aaryan.
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In 1972, Murlikant Petkar won India’s first-ever gold medal in any Olympic event. Petkar, who was paralysed from the waist down, got the medal for 50-metre freestyle swimming at the Paralympics.
Kabir Khan’s Chandu Champion pays fulsome tribute to this pioneer. Chandu Champion, led by a superb Kartik Aaryan, is a solidly crafted biopic that overcomes patches of melodrama and clumsy plotting to deliver an emotionally resonant chronicle of individual courage.
The fictionalised account begins in 2017. An elderly Murlikant (Aaryan) wants to file a police complaint against successive Indian presidents who have denied him the Arjuna Award, India’s second-highest sports honour. The police inspector (Shreyas Talpade) scoffs at Murlikant, who then proceeds to reveal his back story.
The framing device creates an unfair image of Murlikant as embittered and grasping. The man we encounter over 143 minutes is anything but that.
Murlikant’s boyhood hero is Dara Singh. Murlikant is all set to follow in the wrestler’s footsteps until fate intervenes.
Murlikant enlists in the Army, where he emerges as a promising boxer under the tough-love tutelage of coach Ali (Vijay Raaz). A severe injury during the 1965 Indo-Pak War – filmed in a single shot – is a setback that Murlikant overcomes in the only way he knows to: by beginning all over again.
Persistence is the...
