Vijay Shekhawat (Harman Baweja) is a budding cricketer from the small town of Jaisalmer. After he is unable to convince the state selectors, Vijay decides to give the sport one last chance when the Indian team comes for a camp to town. Vijay convinces the Indian coach to give him a try and the next thing you know Vijay has made it into the national team. Shekhawat goes on to become India’s latest world-class batting sensation and is catapulted to superstardom! But along with the success on the field, come the distractions off it – women, drinks, money. As a result the lad from Jaisalmer loses his focus which leads to a fall in his performances.

The man who was the centre of everyone’s attention is suddenly in the news for all the wrong reasons. Soon enough he is out of the team because of disciplinary reasons. Suddenly the hero of the cricket crazy India becomes a villain in everyone’s eyes. His father Ram’s (Anupam Kher) dreams are shattered and he suffers a paralytic stroke. Finally Vijay realizes the folly of his ways and works his way back into the team and gets to play in the finals of the Champion’s trophy against Australia. And of course in true Bollywood style, he only believes in dealing with sixes and fours with the opposition. However, when he is almost close to the end, Vijay is hit on the head and is left with a choice to continue playing which could lead to a permanent injury or to pack up. Will Vijay Shekhawat fulfils his father’s dreams?

Director Ajit Pal decided to cash in on the country’s obsession with cricket. And in India that is a film idea that has super hit all over it. If SRK can make hockey cool, then selling cricket to Indians should be a cake walk. Especially when your hero is going to smack the opponent all over the cricketing ground.

But sadly this is where the excitement begins and ends – on paper. Somewhere between the bound script and cameras, Ajit Pal lost his focus and the end result is Victory.

Having said that, the film does have some good points. The line up of international players is impressive and that will be a big draw. Similarly the atmosphere of a cricket stadium has been captured very well. But that’s about it.

In terms of acting Amrita Rao needs to get herself a new act – the innocent girl next door act is now getting old and boring. She also needs to find herself a new make up artist or at least not pay him for this film.

Coming to Harman, the boy can act but he only needs to find himself the right director. This film could have done well but its execution is bad and the brunt of it will be faced by Harman who is already facing pressure thanks to the debacle that was Love Story 2050. It is great to see him as a cricketer with a lot of talent but to show him only hitting sixes and fours against top international bowlers in all his matches … that’s a bit far fetched considering even Sachin Tendulkar doesn’t do that!

Also the cinematography isn’t great. Certain scenes clearly appear to be shot against a green screen and then super imposed. Also the need to show Amrita and Harman always meeting in the middle of a desert to catch up is also absurd.

Primarily where things have gone wrong for this film is that there are too many clichés. A couple are there in every film but when the film feels like you know exactly what is going to happen next… that’s when it will be difficult to hold the interest of the audience.

And that’s what’s going to be most difficult for the director – to get his audiences to sit through the entire three hours.

Harshita Kohli, Hill Road Media