'Chandu Champion' review: Bollywood biopic is more like a docu-drama

THE Bollywood biopic of Murlikant Petkar recently released in cinemas and will be available on a streaming site in the months ahead.

The story revolves around a determined young man, who dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal for India. After joining the army, he shows immense promise as a boxer, but his life is turned upside after he gets a life-changing injury, while fighting in the 1965 war. After that, he battles against the odds to go on a path-breaking journey towards glory.

The untold story of India’s first Paralympian gold medallist is very much powered by the performance of lead star Kartik Aaryan.

He pours everything into portraying a young man, who goes through challenges and a transformative journey towards the seemingly impossible. The actor delivers a career best performance as he transforms himself physically, visually and emotionally for different chapters of Petkar’s incredible life. Whilst his impressive presence and the relatively swift pace keep you engaged, the fractured screenplay, and relatively poor storytelling turns Chandu Champion into more a docu-drama than a rousing sports biopic that rolls around towards an uplifting finale.

Director Kabir Khan follows up his cricket film 83’ with another sports movie but is unable to inject that much needed extra spark or excitement in the storyline.

What the director lacks in storytelling is made up for by performances, realistic settings and the extraordinary nature of this true-life tale. Vijay Raaz in particular shines in his role and there is a particularly great war scene that is shot in one take. Thankfully, cheesy Bollywood musical numbers don’t overpower this film.

While this true life tale should have been brought to the big screen earlier, that journey from a village to the swimming pool at the 1972 Paralympic Games, via boxing and the harsh realities of war deserved a smoother navigation.