5 reasons why Sachin: A Billion Dreams did complete justice to Sachin Tendulkar

#1 It deals with emotions, real emotions

For those who experienced India in the 1990s, Sachin wasn’t merely a player; he was an emotion. As the nation grew up post the ‘91 economic liberalisation, tiny Sachin became a mascot, personifying their hopes in flesh and blood on a cricket pitch, with a bat in hand.

You feel the agony when he narrates the pain of his broken bones: the elbow and toe hurt as if they are yours.

And the demise of his father, a harrowing setback to a 25-year-old in his prime, burned a hole in our hearts, both then and now. Despite his exalted status, Sachin felt the pain, and you almost felt it too.

The World Cup dream, one that he so religiously chased and poignantly described, and the actual recollection of the night from 2011, fill you with immense gratification – despite the fact that you’ve watched countless reruns of it. It was both his, and ours.

Until we manage to create a time machine, cinema can help us re-live what has passed us, and what we wish to see. I wish the curly-haired teenager re-appears and says those two magical words once again.

“Mai Khelega”.