Story: Surya grows up as a skilled carrom player in the ghetto of Malvani, a Mumbai suburb which has remained free from communal tension, until December 1992. Chasing his dreams to lead a life free from crime, Surya watches his idyllic locality fall apart to the greed of local goons who are in league with corrupt cops. He fights back. 

Movie Review: Okay, so this film does go back in time and picks up a story from Mumbai's dark night that followed the demolition of the Babri mosque on December 6, 1992. Under ordinary circumstances, it might have seemed dated. But today, with the city warding off another divisive and equally dark night that's dangerously looming on the horizon, this time due to the scourge of regionalism, Chandan Arora's Striker, acquires a whole new meaning. Don't divide our city, all you goons, goondas, politicos and administrators, it cries out aloud, through its moving tale of two young lads -- one Hindu, one Muslim -- who try to lead a life of normalcy, despite the shadow of crime and communalism. Childhood buddies, Surya (Siddharth) and Zaid (Ankur Vikal) not only end up toasting the undying bond of friendship, they also salute the spirit of communal harmony, characteristic of their city, through their carefree camaraderie. 

But the real hero of the film is Malvani, the ghetto where the two grow up and dream of escape. The director captures the area with artistic detail and an edgy urgency that brings to life another compelling cameo of Mumbai, India's Maximum City. The crummy interiors of the claustrophobic dwellings where families may be low on money, but not on love and the violent alleys where death lurks round the corner in the guise of a naked sword, all coalesce as a perfect backdrop for the young and rebellious Surya to come of age. Although he discovers his skills at carrom at a young age, Surya first tries to find life beyond the grimy, crime-infested carrom clubs that dot Malvani. He wants to get away from the mach-mach (confusion) and make money in not-so-distant Dubai. But when an agent dupes him of his hard-earned money, he's forced to find sustenance in Jaleel's (Aditya Pancholi), the local goonda, carrom clubs where it isn't the striker alone that's at stake. Life's a risky business too, specially since Jaleel wants to take advantage of the communal tension rampant in the city to play his local politics. 

Director Chandan Arora has already proved his desire to make different cinema with his earlier two ventures: Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon and Main, Meri Patni aur Woh. With Striker he continues to successfully strike out for new grounds. The high point of the film is its authenticity, its heartwarming tale and its performances. Siddharth's Surya is a fine follow-up act to his Rang De Basanti's new age revolutionary. Others to watch out for are Aditya Pancholi who reinvents himself as the local goon, Ankur Vikal, as Zaid, the spaced-out bird on a wire, Vidya Malvade as the understanding elder sister and Padmapriya, the tart with a heart. 

Don't believe the lack lustre promos. The film has more meat -- and meaning -- than it promises.

Nikhat Kazmi

Abhay Deol, an actor rightly credited with pioneering what’s now termed ‘new Bollywood’ says it’s not that hard to be different in Hindi cinema after all. You put together a film where the hero doesn’t lip-sync a song, and there are no dances, the film becomes different on its own. Deol is right. 

I’d add the presence of a believable setting, something that’s conventional for most films, that can immediately mark itself as different for a Hindi movie as well.

This is, by that logic, a different film, as it were. Though a mellifluous Sufi song (Amit Trivedi) does conveniently express the bond between the hero, and his lovely next-door neighbour. The girl’s Muslim; the boy, Hindu. Soon as the father finds his daughter with the boy, the family quietly moves out of the neighbourhood. You can’t quite tell the purpose of this brief romance. Maybe it is to suggest times when segregation between Hindus and Muslims wasn’t complete. Such young love in the ghetto was still possible, or at any rate, imaginable. It isn’t anymore.

The film is set across the late ‘70s, through the ‘80s, until December, ’92 BC (Before Cellphone). The latter being that moment in Mumbai’s history, when the city truly lost its famed innocence. It revealed a communal underbelly unknown to even its residents, and exposed suddenly its sword-wielding rioting mobs that began to distinguish between its own, over a God you privately prayed to. The state was complicit to the crime. The culture and politics of Mumbai (or for that matter, Maharashtra) hasn’t remained the same since. The film latently expresses a similar sentiment.

As a young Hindu boy, Surya (Siddharth) moved from Nagpada into a “10 by 10” (hutment) in Malvani, a large claustrophobic Muslim neighbourhood in the far, northwestern suburb of Mumbai. Such rounding alleys bear few exit routes for the restless and ambitious. I suppose even Dubai isn’t a practical dream anymore.

Surya realises, “Mangne se milta nahin (You don’t get anything when you ask). Chheenna galat hai (Snatching is wrong). Jeetna hi padega -- you have to win, to survive, or hope for a better life. The kid’s a bit of a pro in Carrom, a parlour game that we don’t credit enough for being a sport only as indigenously Indian as kabaddi. Surya’s friend (Ankur Vikal, astoundingly real) becomes a sort of a manager. Aditya Panscholi plays the don. Carrom boards double up for gambling tables. Bets are placed on the star striker, the major “kheli” (player). He rarely disappoints. Such dens hide within several booby traps. Surya is bound to fall. He does.

Yet, this is neither a rags-to-success story of a national carrom champion (which it could’ve been). Nor is it a simplistic prequel to Satya’s Bhikhu Mhatre (that it seemed to be). The hero’s complex journey develops over such strong shades of black-gray that you could even shift uncomfortably on your seat as you watch the protagonist rape a girl he could’ve loved. The story is in the grittiness of experience. Judgment isn’t fed; purpose, not expressly defined. This can be a problem for certain audiences who like to be told everything: who’s the loved hero or feared villain, why to empathise, when to emote…

Sure this film is different then. Shouldn’t each be anyway? Worth it, all the way.

Mayank Shekhar

4 Stars (out of 4)

When I sat in front of my computer to watch Striker on YouTube, I had some concerns. I was glad that I didn’t have to drive over an hour to the only theater near me that was showing it, but I wondered if I’d be as immersed in the experience watching it at home as I would be in the theater. Within minutes, Striker‘s riveting characters put my fears to rest.

Striker flashes back and forth through three time periods in the life of Surya (Siddharth), a young man who lives in Malvani, a Mumbai ghetto. As a child in 1977, he watches his older brother playing carrom — a table game like billiards, where small wooden disks are flicked with the fingers into corner pockets. Surya excels at the game but loses interest as he gets older.

Flash forward to 1988. Surya works as a courier who specializes in transporting jewelry and large amounts of cash. Because it’s a risky job — he’s responsible for repaying the money if he’s robbed en route — Surya pays a broker to find him a lucrative manual labor job in Dubai.

When the broker disappears with Surya’s money, his childhood friend, Zaid (Ankur Vikal), comes up with a scheme to get it back: playing carrom for money. Zaid runs errands for the local don, Jaleel (Aditya Pancholi), and is able to get Surya into some high stakes games.

Jaleel is, of course, not to be trusted. He and his goons don’t brandish weapons openly, but there’s an unmistakable air of menace about them. Zaid isn’t much more reliable, given his drug use and frequent arrests. And the rules governing life in Malvani are in flux after the arrival of a tough police inspector, Farooque (Anupam Kher).

In 1992, a time when religious riots are engulfing Malvani, Surya turns to Inspector Farooque for help. The movie begins and ends in this timeframe.

Striker opens with a note from the filmmaker, Chandan Arora, stating that the movie is based on true stories from people who live in Malvani. The movie’s structure, which shows Surya at various points in his life rather than following one linear narrative, makes Surya seem more like a real person than a typical hero. He’s not the poor kid who grows up to transcend his meager upbringing by leading a righteous life. He’s a guy who doesn’t have many options and occasionally tries to make good choices, but often doesn’t.

Zaid is the most interesting character in the film. Vikal plays Zaid as just charming enough to get by without any real vocation or goals. But, from the moment he shows up in the 1988 timeframe, it’s clear that whatever fate awaits Zaid is not a happy one.

Striker is wonderfully atmospheric. Malvani isn’t a slum as decrepit as the one in Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a neighborhood with houses and shops and various places to get into trouble. The carrom-playing scenes are as evocative as any scenes set in the smoky pool halls of Hollywood films. Appropriately, there are no song-and-dance numbers. Striker will appeal to fans of mainstream American films, inviting them to explore Indian movies beyond the musical masala fare.

Runtime: 2 hrs. 7 min.

Notes on the YouTube viewing experience:

I was impressed with the quality of the YouTube rental experience. The movie downloaded in its entirety almost immediately, so I didn’t have to pause and wait for the video to load. The English subtitles appeared in white text on a black band below the main movie, making them easier to read against a consistently colored background (and, I presume, easier to ignore if you don’t need them). I’d happily rent more movies from YouTube in the future, especially if they’re made available the same day as the theatrical release.