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Dangal

Dangal

Movie · 2016 · 8 people

The title Dangal is the Hindi word for a wrestling bout, and the 2016 film of that name is a biographical sports drama. Written and directed by Nitesh Tiwari, it follows wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat as he sets out to turn his daughters into India's first world-class female wrestlers. Aamir Khan both plays Phogat and produced the film. A record-setter in India, it ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films worldwide and earned more than 216 million dollars in China alone.

The story begins when Phogat, whose own dream of a medal went unfulfilled, notices the talent of his daughters Geeta and Babita. He trains them hard while the young athletes also wrestle with the roles society assigns to women; Geeta wins gold and Babita silver at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra play the adult sisters, Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar their younger selves, and Sakshi Tanwar their mother.

Work on the script began in 2013. Khan had interviewed the Phogat sisters on his television show in 2014 and joined when Tiwari approached him. Set in Haryana, the film began shooting in neighboring Punjab in September 2015, with music by Pritam. It opened worldwide on December 23, 2016, and won four awards at the 62nd Filmfare Awards: best film, best director, best actor and best action.

DirectorNitesh Tiwari
Production companyWalt Disney Pictures

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Cast

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Aamir Khan Aamir Khan Actor · 61 years old Mahavir Singh Phogat Sakshi Tanwar Fatima Sana Shaikh Sanya Malhotra Zaira Wasim Suhani Bhatnagar Vivan Bhatena Girish Kulkarni

Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humor and heart.

It may be about wrestling, but at its center are a father and his daughters, so it is a story that can speak to viewers of different ages, and a good starting point for talking about girls' dreams and hard work. The parts where the father trains his daughters very harshly may need some explaining for younger children, though. The film is also long; finishing it in one sitting with small kids is hard, so plan a break.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

In showing girls stepping onto the wrestling mat in a place like Haryana, where women are assigned set roles, the film leaves the key question open: is Geeta and Babita's success their own choice, or a continuation of their father's unfinished dream of a medal? That fine line between a story that breaks social molds and one that glorifies parental authority is the most debatable thing about the film. Its earnings of more than 216 million dollars in China alone also show how easily themes of family, effort and equal opportunity for girls cross cultural borders.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

The sports biopic has one of the best-known skeletons in cinema: talent is spotted, hard training follows, big tournaments come. And because the real outcome is already known, Nitesh Tiwari has to generate tension from character rather than the scoreline; the film's strength lies in using the friction between father and daughters as its emotional engine. The Filmfare award for action suggests the wrestling scenes were taken seriously as a dramatic tool. Its weakness is that it rarely departs from the genre formula: the structure stays predictable from start to finish and relies less on surprise than on familiar emotions handled well.

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