- Posted by Filmi Beat, last updated on 01 March, 2022

Story

Vijay Borade (Amitabh Bachchan) is a sports professor who is about to retire in a few days. He has coached several kids in college in football, but is drawn to Barabbas when he sees children from the neighborhood slum playing football with plastic bottles. He starts training them in sports; In the beginning by luring money, then by making the game a habit. Because of his training, the slum children, who once used to indulge in drunkenness and wander here and there, were addicted to theft, crime in every way; Now let’s think about football. This game was a way for those children to peep into the world, which till date they have been seeing only from afar. Those slum kids, who are seen on the other side of the wall just like goons. Professor wants to break the wall of society and merge the two worlds. In one scene the professor tells the people standing in protest- “There is an India even beyond the walls of the college, we have to think about that too…”. But will he be able to succeed in this? Will the slum children be able to jump out of the dark lanes of crime and drugs and jump to the other side? The entire film revolves around these questions.

directing

“Crossing the wall is strictly prohibited”, the way director Nagraj Manjule captures these words written on the wall, somewhere the whole essence of the film comes out. Swarm isn’t a purely sports biopic. Rather, the director has touched on many social issues through dialogues. He shows what we and you can do as a society to unite the two different worlds living in India. The director talks about traversing and breaking the wall between the two worlds with many spectacular visuals.

With the first scene, Nagraj Manjule expresses that the story and characters here are going to be closer to reality. The first half of the film progresses at a very fast pace. You constantly feel connected to the characters. The story does a little emotional, but also laughs and teaches the right amount. In the second half, the director seems to deviate a bit from the game-centric story with many issues. But the superb starcast and technical side keep the film tied.

acting

Amitabh Bachchan surprises with every film, every character. The way he has gone into the character of Vijay Borade by taking down the image of a megastar, it is fantastic. In the film, he plays a retired sports professor who, along with football in the hands of slum children, gives him the courage to dream. For those children, he fights against all kinds of obstacles – be it social or financial. He is accompanied by several actors in the film, who become a part of the slum’s football team. The special thing is that Amitabh Bachchan never seems to dominate any other artist. Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar appear on the screen for a few minutes but leave an impression. On the acting front, all the actors who have been a part of slum football have done exceptionally well. Ankush Gaidam in the character of Ankush aka Don looks very impressive in the film.

technical side

Cinematographer Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti has precisely captured the Nagpur city especially the slum areas, the lanes and the entire landscape where the majority of the film passes with his camera. Although Nagraj Manjule keeps you completely attached to the film as a writing-director, but during the editing, the film could have been a bit tight. Especially in the second half, the story seems a bit stretched. Let us tell you, the film is 178 minutes i.e. about 3 hours long.

music

The film has music by Ajay-Atul and lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya. There is no doubt that the music of the film deepens the story. The lyrics of the song are superb, which help you to get a glimpse into the world of the characters you see on screen. The background score given by Sakesh Kanetkar is excellent.

see or not see

Be sure to see ‘Jhund’ is quite different from films made on sports in Bollywood. Directed by Nagraj Manjule, this film on sports will teach you a lot about life. Amitabh Bachchan has done a great job in the film and equally splendid is the football team of the film. 3.5 stars to Jhund from Filmibeat.