The Indian Consulate here screened Dangal as part of their feature movie in the ongoing 11th Asian Consuls General Club (ACGC) Film Festival 2018 at its premises last week, and it was well-received by the over 500 people who were at the screening.
Consul General Md. Noor Rahman Sheikh, speaking before the screening of Dangal, welcomed the consuls general and guests in attendance to view the Indian film screened under the aegis of the ACGC.
“I would like to congratulate the club for screening for the last 11 years the best movies of their respective countries. The festival has provided that forum to showcase through its entries the cultural aspects (of their countries) and also to share this with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people,” Sheikh said.
“Every year with the booming film industry in every cities of India, we have been showcasing some of the best Indian movies in this festival. For this year we proudly present before you the biggest blockbuster movie of India — Dangal.
“This Bollywood movie was released in December 2016 and has been shown in 4,500 screens in India and around 9,000 screens around the world. “Box office has declared this movie as an all time blockbuster, as the highest grossing Hindi film domestically and internationally, with a whopping collection of more than $330 billion till December 2017, and by now it must have grown,” Sheikh said in his welcome speech.
“Dangal is a Hindi word for wrestling competition. It is a Hindi sports drama film produced by Aamir Khan, who is also the lead actor. It sends a powerful message of women empowerment through the lives and struggles of a family from rural India,” Sheikh stated.
Before the movie, documentaries on Make In India and Skill India were also screened. Earlier, Consul Community Welfare and PIC Moin Akhtar extended a warm welcome to all to watch the Indian feature film Dangal. He also thanked the Directorate of the Film Festival, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, government of India, for providing the DVD of the movie. He also thanked and appreciated Tata Motors and Abeer Medical Group for sponsoring this event.
Dangal is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama film, and is loosely based on the Phogat family, telling the story of Mahavir Singh Phogat, an amateur wrestler, who trains his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari to become India’s first world-class female wrestlers.
Mahavir Singh is a national champion based in Balali, a village in Haryana. He was forced by his father to give up the sport in order to be gainfully employed. Dejected that he could not win a medal for his country, he vows that his unborn son will.
Disappointed upon having four daughters, he gives up hope. But when his older daughters Geeta and Babita come home after beating up two boys in response to derogatory comments, he realizes their potential to become wrestlers and begins coaching them.
Despite facing backlash from the villagers, he goes ahead with them, training them in his makeshift mud pit. Initially, the girls resent their father for his treatment but soon realize that he wants them to have a good future and not grow up to be stereotypical housewives.
Motivated, they willingly participate in his coaching. Mahavir takes the girls to wrestling tournaments where they wrestle with boys and defeat them. The storyline follows the step by step conquering of their personal struggles materialistically, culturally and personally to their eventual success, first at the national level and then finally at the international level, to realize not only their dreams but also their father’s, who had dreamt of this day vicariously.
The simple story is a metaphor of the hopes and aspirations of a father, whose determination wins the day. Dangal, as mentioned earlier means wresting, is depicted physically in the wrestling matches that makes the girls eventual stars.
But it also brings out the wrestling within a person as hopes, challenges, joys and sorrows clash in one’s bid to realize one’s dream. It emphasizes the simple fact that this can only be achieved through hard work, determination, astuteness and a singular focus on achieving one’s aims.
SOURCE : SAUDIGAZETE
