Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal
My library was selling some ex rental DVD’s last week for £1 each and I picked up a few Indian ones to watch.
The only one I’d already watched was Honeymoon Travels so I did a quick rewatch of that first (:D) before moving on to...
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal
Let me start off by saying that this is not a film I would recommend anyone to go out and watch intentionally. I mean obviously if you want to watch the complete filmography of any of the stars I’m not going to stop you. I watched Yeh Lamhe Judaai Ke after all so who am I to judge?
I spent the first 30 minutes waiting for John Abraham to show up and he was by far the best part of the film though his acting was uneven. There were scenes though where I thought he absolutely nailed the Typical British Asian Guy such as the morning after he’s broken Shaan’s window.
Arshad, Boman and Bipasha were all disappointing. I’ve never particularly noticed Bipasha’s acting style but it seems to me she can only do serious and smouldering. The few scenes here where she tried to be cute were just wrong and her character never developed for me really and I was totally unconvinced with the John and Bipasha romance. (If you can call it that). Similarly. Arshad’s terrible acting in the first 20 minutes especially in his car just put me off for the rest of the film. And I’m so used to such good stuff from Boman that this was just such a surprisingly lazy performance from him.
I think the film would have been improved with a slightly more comedic leaning to it. I was just never invested enough in Southall FC to get caught up in the film emotionally. But because of all the other failings it never had the possibility to be a film I liked and would want to watch again.
Vivek Agniholtri makes Subhash Ghai and Farah Khan look like amateurs in the product placement department. If there was anything that would make me want to never patronise Western Union would be the scene where two of the players come to a complete stop outside one of the branches and says “If only we had somebody to send us money through Western Union.”
.
There was another case of “Everyone Speaks English” in Goal. Dalip Tahil’s character commentates in Hindi and his co-commentator and all the non-Indian fans understand it perfectly. Then again all the commentators were calling the players by their first names; Shaan, Sunny and Patrick instead of Khan, Bhasin and erm... O’Reilly? (Damn! I’m doing it now too.)
Similarly the Councilwoman doesn’t seem to find it rude that everyone is speaking Hindi and effectively excluding her in a meeting that she arranged. And then suddenly at the end of the conversation she seems to understand!
Something I did like though was the one on one football scene between Sunny and Tony. It reminded me completely of Dhoom 2 with Sunehri and Aryan which was probably most of the appeal because I kept waiting for Boman to say “Are you like checking me out?” to John.
The most off putting thing I found throughout the film is the racist attitude pervading almost every single character in the film. All of Southall United FC seem to be wanting to prove a point to all the white people in England for apparent constant racism towards them without seeming to realise that almost every other sentence they speak is racist itself. But hey if you’re not brown it’s not racism right?
There’s racism from both sides definitely but the thing is the film treats racism against Asians as something that’s wrong and something that should be fought against but racism against white people is perfectly fine for normal conversation. I went to school with a lot of guys who I could transplant into the film seamlessly so while this sort of conversational racism does happen it shouldn’t be brushed aside while the other side is made into the focus of your entire film.
Some choice examples:
Shaan to Tony when asking for help: “Those white people are trying to kick us out!”
Well actually no, out of the three people you have thus far identified as ‘villains’ only one is white while the other two are South Asian.
Once the team learn that Sunny has signed a contract: “You’re a true Englishman you are”
So the definition of an English person is someone who betrays their friends? Which edition of the OED is that in exactly?
Tony trying to get Sunny to play for Southall FC: “You should play with your own people.”
Your own people being an assortment of guys who were probably born in about 6 different countries, practice different religions but at least they’re all the same colour (sort of).
Sunny’s character doesn’t even argue this fact so it comes as a really big shock when he later tells his father that he IS English and ends a long speech with: “I am a British National.”
Whoa! Where did all this patriotism suddenly come from? Are you trying to set things up for a sequel where Sunny and Shaan get asked to play for England against India in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil?
So once again this is not a movie I would recommend if you have to pay for it at all. But if you do want to watch it I would definitely try to find it online or something before you buy it yourself.
Random things
-Why is the League Prize and the money they owe exactly the same amount.
-Why was the Councilwoman so personally invested in getting the land back? I work for my local government and believe me no councillor would use their own free time to attend football matches.
- Something about Jenny’s diction/voice just drove me crazy everytime she spoke.
-90% of the team would not have the stamina for a 90 minute match especially considering they couldn’t do 12 rounds without being sick, falling over etc. Even I could do 12 rounds and I’m not at all healthy.
-I love British characters and films set in England but it always seems to go back to England and India and the colonial rule. I think there should be like a Godwin’s rule for Hindi films about the British Rule. Unless it’s actually relevant to the storyline it just can’t be mentioned.
- Why do John and Arshad both sleep on the double bed in the hotel room even though there’s a single in the room too?
- Hands up who else guessed that Tony’s saviour would turn out to be Sunny’s dad!? Oh so everybody? I feel less clever now :P
The only one I’d already watched was Honeymoon Travels so I did a quick rewatch of that first (:D) before moving on to...
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal
Let me start off by saying that this is not a film I would recommend anyone to go out and watch intentionally. I mean obviously if you want to watch the complete filmography of any of the stars I’m not going to stop you. I watched Yeh Lamhe Judaai Ke after all so who am I to judge?
I spent the first 30 minutes waiting for John Abraham to show up and he was by far the best part of the film though his acting was uneven. There were scenes though where I thought he absolutely nailed the Typical British Asian Guy such as the morning after he’s broken Shaan’s window.
Arshad, Boman and Bipasha were all disappointing. I’ve never particularly noticed Bipasha’s acting style but it seems to me she can only do serious and smouldering. The few scenes here where she tried to be cute were just wrong and her character never developed for me really and I was totally unconvinced with the John and Bipasha romance. (If you can call it that). Similarly. Arshad’s terrible acting in the first 20 minutes especially in his car just put me off for the rest of the film. And I’m so used to such good stuff from Boman that this was just such a surprisingly lazy performance from him.
I think the film would have been improved with a slightly more comedic leaning to it. I was just never invested enough in Southall FC to get caught up in the film emotionally. But because of all the other failings it never had the possibility to be a film I liked and would want to watch again.
Vivek Agniholtri makes Subhash Ghai and Farah Khan look like amateurs in the product placement department. If there was anything that would make me want to never patronise Western Union would be the scene where two of the players come to a complete stop outside one of the branches and says “If only we had somebody to send us money through Western Union.”
.
There was another case of “Everyone Speaks English” in Goal. Dalip Tahil’s character commentates in Hindi and his co-commentator and all the non-Indian fans understand it perfectly. Then again all the commentators were calling the players by their first names; Shaan, Sunny and Patrick instead of Khan, Bhasin and erm... O’Reilly? (Damn! I’m doing it now too.)
Similarly the Councilwoman doesn’t seem to find it rude that everyone is speaking Hindi and effectively excluding her in a meeting that she arranged. And then suddenly at the end of the conversation she seems to understand!
Something I did like though was the one on one football scene between Sunny and Tony. It reminded me completely of Dhoom 2 with Sunehri and Aryan which was probably most of the appeal because I kept waiting for Boman to say “Are you like checking me out?” to John.
The most off putting thing I found throughout the film is the racist attitude pervading almost every single character in the film. All of Southall United FC seem to be wanting to prove a point to all the white people in England for apparent constant racism towards them without seeming to realise that almost every other sentence they speak is racist itself. But hey if you’re not brown it’s not racism right?
There’s racism from both sides definitely but the thing is the film treats racism against Asians as something that’s wrong and something that should be fought against but racism against white people is perfectly fine for normal conversation. I went to school with a lot of guys who I could transplant into the film seamlessly so while this sort of conversational racism does happen it shouldn’t be brushed aside while the other side is made into the focus of your entire film.
Some choice examples:
Shaan to Tony when asking for help: “Those white people are trying to kick us out!”
Well actually no, out of the three people you have thus far identified as ‘villains’ only one is white while the other two are South Asian.
Once the team learn that Sunny has signed a contract: “You’re a true Englishman you are”
So the definition of an English person is someone who betrays their friends? Which edition of the OED is that in exactly?
Tony trying to get Sunny to play for Southall FC: “You should play with your own people.”
Your own people being an assortment of guys who were probably born in about 6 different countries, practice different religions but at least they’re all the same colour (sort of).
Sunny’s character doesn’t even argue this fact so it comes as a really big shock when he later tells his father that he IS English and ends a long speech with: “I am a British National.”
Whoa! Where did all this patriotism suddenly come from? Are you trying to set things up for a sequel where Sunny and Shaan get asked to play for England against India in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil?
So once again this is not a movie I would recommend if you have to pay for it at all. But if you do want to watch it I would definitely try to find it online or something before you buy it yourself.
Random things
-Why is the League Prize and the money they owe exactly the same amount.
-Why was the Councilwoman so personally invested in getting the land back? I work for my local government and believe me no councillor would use their own free time to attend football matches.
- Something about Jenny’s diction/voice just drove me crazy everytime she spoke.
-90% of the team would not have the stamina for a 90 minute match especially considering they couldn’t do 12 rounds without being sick, falling over etc. Even I could do 12 rounds and I’m not at all healthy.
-I love British characters and films set in England but it always seems to go back to England and India and the colonial rule. I think there should be like a Godwin’s rule for Hindi films about the British Rule. Unless it’s actually relevant to the storyline it just can’t be mentioned.
- Why do John and Arshad both sleep on the double bed in the hotel room even though there’s a single in the room too?
- Hands up who else guessed that Tony’s saviour would turn out to be Sunny’s dad!? Oh so everybody? I feel less clever now :P