Director: Ravi Kapoor

Cast: Ravi Kapoor, Manisha Chatterjee, Prem Chopra, Suresh Oberoi, Smita Jaykar, Zakir Hussain, Ehsaan Khan

 

The movie title may lure you to expect something of ‘Chak De’ or ‘Lagaan’ but you may end up feeling cheated once you are through the movie. Though Ravi Kapoor intends to bring out a new dimension to the commonplace theme of sports, yet he misses out the proper execution which leads to the lack of apt representation of the theme.

 

The movie introduces Ravi Kapoor as Ravi Indulkar, the Indian cricket team captain.  Ravi Kapoor is portrayed in the role of a dynamic batsman who at the later stage gets slipped off the moral track. The glittering world of bribe takes over the best part of Ravi and his four team mates – Rajpal, Irfan, Balwinder and Hiten. Shobhan (Zakhir Hussai) lures these batsmen to lose the forthcoming match which they faithfully do. However, the days of glory do not last for long for the bribed batsmen who are eventually exposed by a journalist. And then what follows is very much predictable!  

 

They are dismissed off the team and are forbidden to play any more matches in the future. Then comes the expected series of sorrows for the protagonist Ravi whose father passes away in this time. He is dumped by his girlfriend Soha (Manisha) and there falls our hero into a pool of distress. Despite seeing these misfortunes, you will not feel even once the pain as they all seem so artificial and unreal.

 

The movie then turns to the climax which has been forcibly drawn to make believe the audience about the protagonist’s positive side. Ravi realizes his mistakes and repents. It is now that Indian team’s cricketing coach (Suresh Oberoi) gives him and the other teammates a chance to play a match. The match happens to be not any ordinary one. Instead it is the match played between India and Pakistan. You are surely at the right guess of what happens in the end!

 

The movie revolves around a weak plot which has been treated several times previously in the Bollywood. Debutant director, Ravi Kapoor despite his sincere effort fails to create any impression on the audience with his loosely connected plot. He tries to mingle in two to three genres in the movie which eventually leaves the movie with no genre at all. At one point you may feel that it is like ‘Chak de’ and at another it tends to be like ‘Jannat’. Even you may feel like getting into the territory of Ramgopal Varma’s underworld world at some places in the movie.

 

Ravi Kapoor has talents and can do better with well-designed plots. Manisha is just average and do not really leave any impression on the audience.  Zakir Hussain and Suresh Oberoi have done a fair job. Even Saba Karim and Nikhil Chopra are good in their role of cricket commentators. Aadesh Srivastav’s music does not spread that magic which his music usually does. ‘World Cup 2011’ though is made with good intent, ultimately fails to convey anything aptly to the watching audience.