Striker Review

Cast: Siddharth, Nicolette Bird, Padmapriya, Anupam Kher, Aditya Pancholi, Seema Biswas, Vidya Malvade, Ankur Vikal and Anoop Soni.
Director cum Producer: Chandan Arora.
Cinematographer: P.S. Vinod.
Editor: Sajit Unnikrishnan.


Dostoevsky wrote a heart touching work – The Gambler – touching the social fabric of Russia and Paris in the times. Akin and nearly in the same verve is Chandan Arora’s Striker. This is serious stuff. Make no mistake. It is designed to reach out, as it does to a niche audience. The script is not as tight as one would want and like it to be. But like Bharadwaj’s Kameiney, the underbelly gets a deglamourised and close look especially through the lens of P.S. Vinod.
The most important factor about the film however is the endearing performance of its main actor Siddharth. As the protagonist who is not only pushed by circumstances to make money by betting his skills with the carom-board but also to take on the local goon – Jaleel (Aditya Pancholi). He stands out and delivers wonderful punch filled performance. Interesting the punch is more appealing than powerful. It may lack the style and glamour quotient of a Shahid Kapoor but it makes up with sincerity and understanding that heroes are not always a brawl function.
Early in life, Surya’s (Siddharth) family is pushed into a tenement in Malwani. Brother Chandrakanth (Anoop Soni), early in life, exhibits his striker’s skills on the board, picks a quarrel with Jaleel and ends up with muck on the family face. The family quickly recoils. The story moves on familiar lines on how Surya and friend Zaid (Ankur Vikal) are sucked into a world that has no time for excuses and a world that is constantly forking one to the hot-seat.
Dostoevsky says – In the first place, everything about it seemed to me so foul- so morally mean and foul. Yet I am not speaking of the hungry, the restless folk who, by scores nay, even by the hundreds- could be seen crowded around the gambling tables. For in a desire to win quickly and to win much I can see nothing sordid; I have always applauded the opinion of a certain dead and gone, but cocksure, moralist, who replied to the excuse that “one may gamble moderately”, by saying “that to do so makes things worse since in that case the profits too will always be moderate.”
In a film of this kind, the story is unimportant. Perhaps intentionally even the treatment isn’t. It is the statement. It is also the maker of the statement. Here lies the richness of the film. Many aspects of the film are faulty including the romantic angle as also the relationship between the brother and sister which constitutes the partial base of the screenplay. Performances, specially from Seema Biswas, Vidya Malvade, Ankur Vikal and Anoop Soni is appealing.
The film is however designed to revolve around the performing skills of Siddharth. The actor who hitherto has not had a serious dekho from Bollywood gets a gift-wrapped opportunity. He delivers with panache. The film, if for nothing is watchable for Siddharth. In a nouveau grammatical Bollywood, Striker is a step forward. It articulates and surely through Siddharth an alternate paradigm. The film falters, the actor does not. Seen even from the precincts of the faltering film maker, its worth encouraging in the context of experiment. This is a Striker that lacks velocity but like in the game, sometimes, a deft touch is more important. Siddharth stands out as the red coin on the board. More value and wonderful delivery.