There is something remarkable about Unmukt Chand’s life. Not the highs: the iconic Under-19 World Cup triumph and innings in the final, the ton on Ranji debut, the big IPL contract, the early media blitz. But the steep fall from grace: from his predestined future as India’s next big sporting star to his retreat into anonymity only a few years later.
This is an entirely unique Indian cricketing tale. Some parallels have been drawn, with suggestions that the boisterous Delhi boy was the Vinod Kambli to Virat Kohli’s Sachin Tendulkar. But Kambli played 17 Tests and over 100 ODIs for India; Unmukt retired from Indian cricket at the age of 28 without making his international debut to pursue cricket in the United States.
There would be a natural fascination to this story. And through the overly stylised, predictable, and slow documentary made about his life, that fascination remains. The film’s problem is that it does nothing to address the intrigue.
‘Unbroken: The Unmukt Chand Story,’ which released in theatres on Friday, is very much of the OTT mould that has surged in popularity recently, albeit trading shock value for overt sentimentality. The advantages of that are that the filmmakers have been granted remarkable access to the former prodigal player, raising an opportunity to answer a vital question: what must it be like to be a 30-year-old professional (semi-professional?) athlete, still toiling away at lower levels of the sport, who is only remembered for the time when he was 19?
Safe to say, it’s an opportunity missed.
There are the general cliches. Dramatic philosophy spouted by well-wishers and himself to a cheesy background score. Tainted old home videos and photographs. Talking heads speaking of his heady talent. But the film trudges along as nothing more than a retelling of his story, which, by the end of it, ends up feeling a bit dull, especially without any new revelations.
Does archival news footage and newspaper clippings from his early days, inclusive of big endorsements, his writing of a book, and a very public admonishment from Kapil Dev (seemingly prophetic and slightly amusing in its tenor), really give an insight into what went wrong for the prodigy? Did fame really get to him? The film does not address it.
Does relentless coverage of Unmukt and his wife’s struggles to adapt to life in Dallas really give an insight into his life in the present moment? Are their debates about buying furniture or having to cut onions to prepare their own meals supposed to generate sympathy? Is this a riches-to-rags story about a professional cricketer?
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Perhaps this film is meant for a different kind of audience. Those who were too young, or simply not cricket-savvy, to realise just how fascinating Unmukt’s career arc has been. It holds attention just enough during its first half, only in curiosity about where exactly his story is going. But if one is seeking answers to exactly what explains that fall from grace – among the most spectacular in Indian cricket history – prepare for disappointment.
