We all like stories of superheroes. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man... Superheroes are just ordinary-looking people living among us, who have a little more power than us. Who is at the forefront of facing every difficulty? For whom even the most difficult things are possible. In the hustle and bustle of life, we get so lost in imaginary stories that we do not pay attention to the 'superheroes' of real life. Ajay Devgan has brought the story of one such unknown 'superhero' on the big screen with the film 'Maidan'.

What is the story of the film?

There have been many people in the history of our country who have given us a place in the eyes of the world. Reached a level that no one had ever expected. One such person was Syed Abdul Rahim. Rahim Saheb is the person who helped many Indian football teams get their first gold medal in the Asian Games. The film 'Maidan' based on his courage and passion is quite explosive. Along with football, this film also has politics, thrill, and emotions.

The story of the film starts in the year 1952, when Indian players are playing football matches barefoot. If someone's leg gets hurt, someone is left behind in tackling the other player. Similarly, the Indian team loses the match. At the Federation office in Calcutta, the blame for the defeat of the Indian football team is placed on Syed Abdul Rahim (Ajay Devgan). Rahim says that if the responsibility of defeat is his, then he will also choose his team himself. After this, he sets out across the country to search for the best players for his team.

Rahim prepares his team by traveling from Calcutta to Secunderabad, Kerala, and even Punjab. This team includes many good players including PK Banerjee (Chaitanya Sharma), Chuni Goswami (Amartya Ray), Jarnail Singh (Davinder Gill), Tulsidas Balram (Sushant Vedande), and Peter Thangaraj (Tejas Ravi Shankar). This is the team with whom Rahim is working hard and wants to win the Asian Games gold medal. 

Subhankar Sengupta, sitting in the Federation, does not like Rahim Saheb and a senior journalist of a top newspaper Roy Choudhary (Gajraj Rao) is trying hard to oust Rahim from the position of coach of the Indian football team. There are many thorns in this destination, there is one more challenge than the other and when the enemy is sitting inside the house, it becomes more difficult to reach the destination. In such a situation, how Syed Abdul Rahim and his football team will reach the gold medal in the Asian Games 1962, this is what is to be seen in the film.

The film makes you laugh and cry

In recent times, we have seen many sports dramas and sports biopic films. But there was nothing in anyone that would give you goosebumps. But that film has arrived. 'Maidan' has everything that a great, heartwarming, and tear-jerking sports biopic movie should have. This picture captivates you from the first few scenes. Then you become Rahim Sahab's and Rahim Sahab becomes yours. He keeps adding to his team and you become his companion in his journey and see everything. His cheerful family, the challenges of his job, and the conspiracy against him, all bring out different emotions in you. When you applaud players when they score a goal, you get upset when they get injured. Your heart aches to see Rahim's helplessness and his pain brings tears to your eyes.

performance

Talking about performance, I will first talk about Gajraj Rao. His character is so bad that you will hate him after seeing him. I would feel like 'butte se iss man ka muh kooch di jaaye' (this is the line my mother uses when she doesn't like something someone says). And this shows how good an actor Gajraj is. He has captured his character so amazingly that you will hate him in every scene. His character does not let Rahim rest in any way, but when he gets his lesson, Mashallah, it is fun.

All the actors including Chaitanya Sharma, Amartya Ray, Davinder Gill, Sushant Vedande, Tejas Ravi Shankar, Rishabh Joshi, Amandeep Thakur, Madhur Mittal, Manandeep Singh have performed amazingly in the roles of football team players. With his game, he makes every scene full of enthusiasm. Everyone has worked very hard to be seen playing football on screen and you can clearly see this in their performance. Along with this, casting directors also need to be praised. Ravi Ahuja and his team have cast many actors as players. It was quite refreshing to see some new and some known faces in this film. Priyamani's work in the role of Rahim's wife is good. He has played his small role very well. Apart from this, other actors associated with the film have also done justice to their characters to a great extent.

Ajay Devgan is unmatched

Now let's talk about the hero of our film. Everyone knows that Ajay Devgan is a great actor. He has played many different characters. He also plays the role of Singham with ease and also makes the audience laugh by becoming Gopal. But perhaps after a very long time, he has been seen in such a serious and emotion-filled role. He has done complete justice to the role of Syed Abdul Rahim. Looking at Ajay on screen, you would feel that if Rahim Sahab had ever got a chance to see him in person, he would have been like this. In the first half of the film, you see Ajay Devgan playing Rahim with happiness and enthusiasm. Whatever happens after the interval, he becomes a completely different person. Their passion, their pain, their courage and courage, you feel it all inside you. This is the same Ajay Devgan, whom we have not seen on screen for the last several years. Your heart beats faster till the climax scene of the film and at the end, Ajay makes you cry. This has not happened in many years. This can easily be called one of Ajay Devgan's best performances.

Direction and Music

Like Ajay Devgan, director Amit Rabindranath Sharma has also proved that he knows how to make you laugh with a film like 'Badhaai Ho' and make you cry and feel proud with a film like 'Maidan'. The writing team of the film, Akash Chawla, Siddhant Mago, Arunav Joy, and Ritesh Shah has wrote this story after doing a lot of research. Doing full justice to the team's writing, Amit Sharma has woven the entire picture frame to frame. The work of cinematographers Tushar Kanti Ray and Anshuman Singh Thakur is excellent. The cinematography of the sports segments has been done exceptionally by Andrey Valentsov. You don't get tired watching this three-hour-long film, but want to see more of it. While watching this film, one gets the same feeling as one got after watching 'Chak De India' for the first time.

AR Rahman's music is also amazing. From 'Mirza' to 'Dil Nahi Todenge', all the songs fit perfectly into the screenplay. But the song 'Jaane Do' in the voice of AR Rahman will bring tears to your eyes. The background score of the film is also very good. This film has been awaited for years and after watching it one can say - 'Better late than never'.