BEYOND ALL BOUNDARIES
For Indians, Cricket is a Religion and Sachin is their God. The collective frenzy of one billion people over sport can even put Brazil’s frenzy for soccer to shame. Our eyes were glued to the television every time India is batting and Sachin is on the crease. Even today, after he has retired, the frenzy still continues. Most of us claim to be the biggest fans of cricket and claim to be breathing, eating and sleeping cricket on most days. But then, there are some who go beyond this, it’s like the only word they understand is cricket. Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary (famously known as Gautam) leads this bandwagon. This man is known to have never missed a single cricket match played by India. He paints his entire body, dances and waves the Indian flag every time an Indian batsman manages to send the ball to kiss the boundary. Sachin Tendulkar is his idol and he has literally followed his word like an order. It was Sachin who invited him to the team’s dressing room after the World Cup victory, gave him the cup and posed for a picture with him. This man’s journey has now become a legend that will be narrated to several generations in India. At a stage in life when he had no money, Sudhir was ready to sell his kidney to collect money for the ticket. He has cycled from one city to another in India only to watch India play. Today, BCCI funds him and sees to it that he attends every match without any financial difficulty.
Akshaya and Prithvi are two other passionate cricket fans who are a part of this documentary. Akshaya is an 18 year old girl, who wants to be a part of Women’s Cricket and change the way the country looks at women sports. She lives in a slum in Mumbai and works day and night only to be a part of this sport someday. Prithvi (13) is already seen as one of India’s best batsmen for the years to come. He is a prodigy who bears the burden of immense expectations and handles it like a pro.
This documentary is a story of these 3 young fans that went beyond the boundaries of gender, caste, class, age and the “defined roles” that society imposes on every individual, in order to achieve what they wanted to. They do not want to prove anything or teach a lesson to anyone, they only want to be around cricket, because that is the only place where their heart belongs. They believe that nothing can stop you from achieving your dream; you just need to be at it. The entire documentary is shot with 2011 World Cup running in the background, providing that much needed kick as the underdog team India lifted the trophy. This is a story of absolute madness, extreme hard work and unadulterated love for cricket, BEYOND ALL BOUNDARIES.
The film is directed by Sushrut Jain and produced by Kunal Nayyar and Medha Jaishankar.
Here is the link to its trailer.
(P.S : The movie is not available on YouTube for reasons unknown. One can watch the film on iTunes, it’s available for 13$. Those guys still eager to watch the movie, it is going to get aired on &Pictures (14thMarch 2015))
