Can Ajay Devgn justify the role of football coach Syed Abdul Rahim in “Maidaan”?
There was a time in between 1952 to 1962, when a simple man with bigger dreams, Syed Abdul Rahim, started his journey and revolutionized football as the football coach of India. Rahim was a man of great strength and determination and had a vision of uplifting the game upto the international stage. Rahim’s wife’s support propelled his dream of becoming the leading football coach in that era.
With his strategical 4-2-4 formation, Indian Football Team started to be called as the “Brazil of Asia”. Rahim had to face many adversities from the society, football board and the government itself, but challenging the obstacles, Rahim gave 2 gold medals to India from the 1951 and 1952 Asian Games; and also qualified for the semi finals of 1956 Summer Olympics.
Maidaan is a Hindi biographical sports drama, revolving round the journey of Syed Abdul Rahim as the Indian football coach, played by Ajay Devgn in the movie. Directed by Amit Sharma and written by Aman Rai, Atul Shahi and Amit Sharma, Maidaan is coming to the theatres on 10th April, 2024. Produced by Boney Kapoor, Akash Chawla, Arunava Joy Sengupta and Zee Studios, this film also features Priyamani, Rudranil Ghosh and Gajraj Rao. The music has been composed by the maestro himself, A.R. Rahman.
Films based on Indian sports that have made its mark worldwide, are, ‘Lagaan’, ‘Chak De India’, ‘Mary Kom’, ‘Dangal’, ‘Dhoni’, etc, to name a few. Though ISL (Indian Super League) has changed the face of football in India altogether, its time to see whether Maidaan can fuel up the youth and the present Indian Football Team to make its mark again at the international levels.
