Paan Singh Tomar

Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia

Producer: Ronnie Screwvala

The real-life story of subedar Paan Singh Tomar, a seven-time national champion athlete and Army jawan who became a dacoit

In an unjust society, some crimes become a necessity!

Sportsmen and outlaws inhabit two different universes. One shines amidst the bright lights of glory, the other haunts the ravines of notoriety. But in director Tigmanshu Dhulia's biopic, Paan Singh Tomar, the two worlds collide. And the result is a rather exquisite blend of drama, humor and tragedy.

Dhulia has a new agenda in creating PST. He reminds us -- because the statement at the top of the film makes it amply clear -- that India incorporates an unhappy log when it involves the treatment of its former athletes and who were real national heroes.

That statement carries lots of significance in current times when some sports in India, particularly cricket, became an enormous business. Variant bucks are spent shopping for, promoting Indian Premier League players and groups. Players like Sachin Tendulkar, an Indian hero alright, are actually well taken care of through all his endorsement deals. However not too previously, and maybe even currently, several of India's well-known athletes lived in abject poverty, forgotten by the state, once their sports careers were over.

Paan Singh Tomar is fiction inspired by true events. It tells the real life story of Paan Singh Tomar (Irrfan Khan), his meteoric rise as an athlete and his subsequent descent into the ravines of Chambal as just another name in the list of dacoits killed in police encounters.

Under Dhulia's direction, the transition of Paan Singh Tomar, the mild athlete who carries an image and memory of a Japanese feminine fan, and flirts together with his wife (Mahie Gill) within the sweetest manner, to the dreaded rebel, looks justifiable.

Sanjay Chauhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia have penned an interesting story and screenplay when Paan Singh Tomar becomes an athlete of repute in the Indian Army. However, the interval point, at which the film takes a dramatic turn, prepares the audience for a revenge drama in the second half. And that is exactly what the post-interval portion turns out to be – a routine revenge fare, full of action.

Irrfan imbues Tomar with grace and a quiet dignity. So even when he meets the inevitable fate of a bandit and his body riddled with bullets, collapses into the dusty ground, there is something heroic about him.

Khan is mesmerizing within the film -- an innocent, naïve, charming athlete, a person with a clean heart, who later becomes an angry, menacing outlaw. The camera loves him and it's not possible to appear far from the screen when the main focus is on him.

Khan may be a national treasure, a novel gifted Indian actor who uses his eyes, voice and different expressions to show the humor and then pathos in his characters.

Though Paan Singh Tomar does not have the commercial ingredients to score at the box-office it has a timeless aura to it. Book your tickets now.