There is a poignant scene in Chandu Champion in which paralysed from the waist down because of the near-fatal injuries that he suffers in the 1965 Indo-Pak War, a young Murli asks his older brother to take him home. Though loving, he (played by a terrific Aniruddh Dave) tells Murli how his family is financially and physically unequipped to shoulder a liability. A heartbeat later, they leave him on his own at a military hospital in Mumbai.
A biopic of Murlikant Petkar, the first Indian to win Olympic gold, Chandu Champion could have been a highlight reel of his remarkable achievements or a screen adaptation of his Wikipedia page as most Hindi biopics unfortunately are, but it is scenes like this that elevate this Kabir Khan directorial to carve a story of individual triumph that’s as universal as it is singular.
Khan relies heavily on the tropes of the sports biopic to tell his tale. We first meet Murli (Kartik Aaryan) at a police station in 2017. A septuagenarian, he is wrinkled and greying and wants to sue all the presidents since his Paralympic win for not felicitating him with the Arjuna Award, India’s second-highest sporting honor. When the cops laugh off his absurd demand, Murli begins to narrate his life story. There’s nothing new with this staging or the structure, it is how Khan chooses to spin the intricate yarn of memory and flashbacks that makes all the difference.
As a young boy, Murli gets to witness the euphoria around Khashaba Jadhav becoming the first Indian to ever win anything at the Olympics—a bronze for wrestling at the 1952 Summer Games in Helsinki. In seeing a real-life hero, his impressionable mind finds its life’s purpose. Even though he becomes a laughing stock in Islampur, his village in rural Maharashtra, he dedicates himself to the neighborhood akhara, growing up seeing regional wrestlers train. An unlikely win at a local wrestling bout forces him to flee the village and thus begins his life in the Indian Army.
Bolstered by the tough training of his relentless coach Tiger Ali (Vijay Raaz) and the warm, steadfast friendship of fellow solider Karnail Singh (Farzi’s Bhuvan Arora), Murli emerges as a promising boxer who is just a whisker away from clinching his Olympics medal when he gets shot at nine times in 1965 during a surprise attack on his battalion in Kashmir—a wonderfully fluid one-take shot, Khan’s existential stance on how a minute can forever change everything.
After spending two years in a coma, Murli wakes up to a life sans meaning. A bullet lodged in his spine renders his legs lifeless, forcing him into a wheelchair. Ali reappears from the shadows as a godsend just when Murli hits his lowest. He dares him to dream anew. They switch the sport again—it’s swimming this time and the goal is gold in the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg. It’s from here that Murli’s story gets truly extraordinary.
What’s also spectacular is Sudeep Chatterjee’s poetic camerawork, Robert Miller’s riveting action sequences, and Nitin Baid’s slick editing, seamlessly stitching together the various kaleidoscopic chapters of Murli’s life to mirror a carnival of sheer chutzpah. But most crucially, it’s Khan, Sumit Arora, and Sudipto Sarkar’s water-tight screenplay that holds it all together and keeps the momentum going despite a few ragged speedbumps along the way.
For instance, the film does get preachy in parts and its cocktail of drama, heightened emotion, and humor isn’t always smooth. Moreover, Aaryan’s take on Maharashtrian Hindi, his saying champi-ywan instead of champi-un each time, or externalizing Murli’s simple-minded obsession and earnestness is so awkward and forced, it instantly throws you off, makes you aware that you are watching an urban actor try hard to pass off as an uncouth athlete from Sangli.
But to his credit, this is his Aaryan’s finest performance to date. There has been a lot of chatter around his physical transformation for this film, but he transcends it effortlessly and imbues Chandu Champion with a beating, restless heart instead. So when you leave the theatre, you’re only left with feeling, the physicality of it all dissipates entirely, such is the fullness of his commitment to this project.
Murli’s impossible dream isolates him, he is forced to fend for himself early on and yet he is never lonely. His road is smattered with sunny supporting characters who hold him, scold him, and mold him into who he becomes. Chandu Champion has a fantastic secondary cast—Raaz, Arora, Dave, Shreyas Talpade, Rajpal Yadav, Brijendra Kala, and Sonali Kulkarni, each add their unmistakable stamp to every scene they are in, making Murli’s journey richer by their presence.
Chandu Champion could have gone in a few different directions, so heavily textured has been Murli’s existence. But Khan wisely keeps the narrative lean, focusing on capturing his essence rather than all his achievements or aspects of his life. For instance, this story has no romantic angle, not even a mention of his future wife. This is a world peopled by men. In any other movie, it would have been a problem. But it works in Chandu Champion’s favor. I’d rather have no women than see them reduced to tokens in films about men.
In 143 minutes, Chandu Champion will remind you of Laal Singh Chaddha (2022) and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013). The similarities are just too many. But instead of being derivative, it’s another worthy addition to the precious film genre that celebrates the human spirit. Towards the end, the movie compares Murli to independent India. With all the odds against it, few believed that the nation could survive on its own. And yet, here we are—the world’s largest democracy. It’s only fitting then to see Aaryan as the face of this ultimate underdog story. For no one in recent memory knows the journey from Chandu to Champion better than him.
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