We are given the rare opportunity to experience the present day with Tendulkar but also the past through his personal home movies where we experience things other than cricket. Finally James Erskine himself.Įrskine is known for his fact based documentaries, and here he has managed to not just present Sachin the cricketer, but also Sachin the son, the brother, the husband, the father and the friend. Second person is the person who suggested James Erskine be the director. Sachin’s journey could not be covered in a conventional Bollywood film. First person would be whoever came up with the idea not to go down the Bollywood route. I would give credit for this production to several people. The love respect and admiration for his achievements is evident. So they do what they do best, which is talk from the heart and the emotion comes across, be it when Nasser Hussain say’s ‘when Tendulkar is noisy India is noisy when Tendulkar is quiet India is quiet’, or when Shane Warne is talking about his bowling experiences. Yes they have media handling skills but not acting. Cricketeers galore from Sir Viv Richards to Shane Warne and let’s face it, they aren’t actors. We are also given real family members from wife Anjali to mother Rajni Tendulkar. And rightly so given the lifestyle he has lead for the last 24 years where every move has been scrutinised a billion times over. A guards down version which is a rare treat as any Sachin fan would know how deeply protective he is of his personal life. There isn’t a cast as such to review as unlike Azhar and Dhoni, we are given the real Sachin. It is about how hard work and talent make greatness putting it quite simply. It is a documentary about cricket, Sachin and Sachin’s life between 22 yards for 24 years. To call this a film would be wrong, because it isn’t. It is about the multiple journeys and experiences of the people alongside a single individual.
A journey through the trials and tribulations, the happiness and sadness of the man the sports world and cricketing fans know as ‘The Little Master’. You can’t.Īnd this is what Sachin – A Billion Dreams is. Was this film going to go the Bollywood route a la the Emraan Hashmi starrer Azhar or the Sushant Singh Rajput starrer MS Dhoni? After watching the film my concern was completely different – How do you review someone’s memories and experiences? The answer is simple. I had a concern before I went to see this film.