TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction…………. ………………………………………………………………… 3
2. Literature Review………………………………………………………………………4
3. Plot……………………………………………….……………………………………………5
4. Observation……………………………………………………………………………7
5. Analysis & Observation………………………………………………………………9
6. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………11

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 INTRODUCTION

The movie I chose for research project is Paan Singh Tomar. The reason of choosing this
particular film is that it is very close to my heart and I have personal experience attached to
it. Actually it was recommended by my parent, because I am very passionate about athletics
so therefore my parents want me to watch this movie learn about the difficulties faced by
athletes in india.
Another reason why I chose Paan Singh Tomar is that it was a very new experience for me to
watch Irrfan Khan (lead actor) in a serious real life role , as I have seen him only in comic and
theatre. Furthermore the movie is inspired by true facts and I am particularly interested in
movies which have its story line connected to sport irrespective of belongingness from
Hollywood or Bollywood such as Chak de India, Dangal etc…
Irrfan khan as Paan Singh Tomar ,an athlete ,an army man and a rebel. He is an Indian film
actor primarily known in Bollywood. Irrfan Khan was born on 7 January 1967 in Jaipur,
Rajasthan to a muslim family. He was studying for his MA degree, when he earned a
scholarship to study at national school of drama(NSD) in New Delhi in 1984 after his
graduation he shifted to Mumbai and then struggled a lot enter into Bollywood.
Tigmanshu Dhulia has started his career as a casting director for films Bandit Queen and Stif
Upper Lips . Dhulia started his direction career, by assisting Pradip Krishen in Electric Moon
(1992) and Ketan Mehta in Sardar (1993). Thereafter he turned to television, thus during
90’s Dhulia directed and produced several television program. Dhulia’s 1999 series Star
Bestsellers, a sequence of six 45-minute short stories ,won him popular recognition.
He directed his first feature film, Haasil in 2003, a love story set among politicised students
in north India. The film was critically well received and has gained a cult following. Dhulia’s
film Paan Singh Tomar released on 2nd March 2012 and won him wide critical acclaim
including National Film Award for Best Feature Film.

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3
 PLOT

A reporter intervis Paan Singh Tomar , a dacoit who is in the news for killing nine people of a
community .Answering questions about himself , the story goes in a flashback from the year
19501 . Paan singh works in the Army while his wife and mother live in Morena. He surprises
his seniors in the army with his athletic skills. Though he was not interested in sports, he
joins the sports division because there were no limits on their diet. Picked for the 5000
metre race’s training, he was persuaded to run for the 3000 metre steeplechase by his
coach. He participates in the Indian National Games and wins the gold medal in the
steeplechase event 7 years in a row. In 1958, he participates in the Asian games at Tokyo, but
couldn’t win because of his inability to adjust with the track spikes only given to him in the
final event. He felt frustrated when he was not allowed to go to the borders to fight in the
1962& 1965 wars because sportsmen were not allowed to fight in them. In 1967, he
participated in the international military games and wins the gold medal in the steeplechase.
Paan Singh and his family

His elder brother from his native place visits him and tells him about an illegal acquisition by
Bhanwar Singh, his relative . Paan singh retires from the army to settle his family disputes ,
despite being ofered a position as the coach in the army. On arriving home, he tries to
resolve the issue with Bhanwar Singh. He seeks help from the local police station , but no
help is provided. His son is beaten badly by Bhanwar Singh and his goons. Paan singh then
order his son to rejoin the army and stay away from the dispute . Bhanwar Singh and his
goons try to kill Paan Singh and his family. Most of his family managed to escape but his
mother is murdered brutally. Paan singh decides to avenge his mother’s death. He becomes
a baaghi who wreaks havoc in the Chambal valley. He forms a gang of few people who are
his relatives and are in problem because of Bhanwar Singh.

Paan Singh then arranges money by extorting the money of kidnapped wealthy businessman
of the area to arrange money and arsenal for his gang so that they can make the proper
gang. After arranging all the necessary arrangements of arms and ammunitions for gang
members, he arranges a major attack on Bhanawr Singh who has a police protection but
Bhanwar Sing got killed by Paan Singh tomar after a brief chase.

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Then, in order to take revenge for is brother death, he kills an 9 villager of, who became
police informers and told police about is hideout. This event creates havoc in the public,
administration and also among the other gangs of Dacoit who argues with him to surrender
so that manhunt by the police would come to halt but he denies that.
The interview with the reporter ends here and the interview is published in the newspaper
and causes a sensation. The police continued in their search for Paan Singh Tomar, who
decides to lie low for a while. He meets his family and his coach in the army who request
that he surrender. Paan Singh refuses to surrender on the principle that while he was a
sportsman holding a national record, nobody came to help him with his problems, and the
moment he turned a rebel, everyone wants him to be arrested. When the gang reconvenes
after a month’s hiatus, one of the members Gopi who had turned a police informer betrays
the gang and gives them away to the police. A shootout ensues where all members of the
gang, including Paan Singh, are killed by Yashwant Singh Ghuraiya, a police officer and Gujjar
by caste.

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 OBSERVATION

Some films are meant to run that extra mile to go beyond being a mere cinematic
experience. As we see names of real-life athletes who died unsung flash across the screen at
the end of Paan Singh Tomar we realise what we've just witnessed in the past 190 minutes
of taut playing-time is not just film. It's a treatise on what destiny has in store for people
who do not conform to socially-acceptable definitions of success. Indeed Irrfan Khan as Paan
Singh Tomar typifies that criminal neglect of all athletes in our country barring cricketers
who, as we all know by now, are grossly overrated sportsperson . Tomar was a steeplechase
runner. Not that it made any diference to his destiny. In the army for the long innings Tomar,
we are told, took voluntary retirement to look after his family and land in his native village. 2

This is where Dhulia's riveting screenplay, where not a moment is squandered in self-
indulgent editing, gets truly astounding. Abandoning the manageable hurdles of the
steeplechase Tomar took to the gun to avenge the wrong done to his family. There are
hurdles, and hurdles. And some impossible to overcome.The two lives of Paan Singh Tomar,
in the army as a celebrated sportsperson and as an outlaw on the run in the Chambal valley
(not on a horse, please!) are brought together in a stirring blend of the brilliant and the
haunting.

While Dhulia's earlier works sufered for the lack of a suitable budget Paan Singh Tomar is
technically a polished piece of cinema with the editing (Aarti Bajaj) and background score
(Sandeep Chowta) adding a dimension beyond the drama of the driven athlete.The film is
shot by cinematographer Aseem Mishra with an intriguing blend of a bleeding authenticity
and a poetic resplendence. Indeed, Tigmanshu Dhulia's training as a raconteur of a tale of
social injustice and damnifying outlawry, harks back to the director's association with
Shekhar Kapoor's Bandit Queen. In portraying Paan Singh's leap from celebrated athlete to
wanted bandit, Dhulia avoids the ostentatious brutality of the circumstances that made
Phoolan Devi a social outcast.

2 http://movies.ndtv.com/movie-reviews/review-paan-singh-tomar-688

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Paan Singh Tomar has very little on-screen violence. It's the heart that bleeds profusely and
invisibly in almost every frame.The unspoken question, why do we treat our athletes so
shabbily, trails the narrative, as does the other larger question of social inequality and the
subversion of law. Unlike other films with a strong social message Paan Singh Tomar never
stops being a truly liberating cinematic experience.

Of course much of the credit for the film's sledgehammer efect goes to Irrfan Khan's central
performance. As Paan Singh Irrfan is in one word, flawless. There is not a single shot in the
film that he gets wrong. He follows his character's destiny with an intuitive alertness that
leaves no room for ambiguity in the interpretation of the character's complex life. And it's
not just about getting the character's spoken language and body language right. Irrfan goes
way beyond.

The dialogues range from the t to the refreshing. Comments on subordination and
oppression are often laced in laughter. God knows we need a sense of humour to survive the
progressive rampancy of socio-political injustice . The beauty of watching Irrfan transform
into Tomar is the seamless leap the actor takes into the character. Irrfan is blessed with first-
rate supporting actors, many of whom we haven't seen much on screen before. They add to
the film's high level of authenticity by just not looking like and speaking their lines like
actors.

The scenes showing Irrfan running with other actors are beautifully captured as moments of
metaphorical significance. Somewhere down the line the scenes showing Tomar jumping
over hurdles on the race track merge into the larger picture to tell us, life on field and life
outside the race track have one thing in common. You have to keep running, no matter what
the odds.Paan Singh Tomar is a terrific edge-of-the-seat entertainer. The synthesis of two
genres-the sports film and the dacoit drama-is done with such confident ingenuity that we
hardly realize when one ends, the other begins."No one gave a damn about me when I won
medals for the country. Today when I'm a baaghi (rebel) everyone wants to know about Paan
Singh Tomar," Irrrfan says caustically.Hopefully after this film we'd learn to care for our
unsung heroes a bit more.

Oh yes, a word on the stunning soundtrack. From snatches of old Lata Mangeshkar melodies
to radio announcements on Nargis Dutt's demise, time passages are achieved through
incidental snatches of voices caught in mid-air.

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Life's life that. You never know what you will experience in that raga we call existence until a
snatch of a line hits you from a distance.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

We have a wrong belief that people from the Western Countries are physically stronger than
us and hence they succeed in Athletics but lately China has started winning more Medals
than any other country in the world.There are several reasons that in spite of the abundance
of Talent and potential in India, Indians fail to succeed as much as they should in Sports.
1.Financial Support
2.Lack of Sporting Infrastructure
3.Corruption3
1)Financial Support
Except Cricketers, Athletes in our country are very poorly paid and Professional Athletes
have a limited shelf life which often gets shortened due to Injury so, less people choose
Sports as Career.Families want a financially lucrative career for their kids so they discourage
their kids to pursue Sports professionally and keep it as a hobby.
2)Lack of Sporting Infrastructure

This is the biggest reason for poor performance of Indian Athletes in International Sport
Events. Compared to other countries our Sports Infrastructure is extremely poor.The Sports
Authority of India is responsible for Sports Infrastructure in India. It has 56 training Centers,
12 centers for specialized training and 5 stadiums. Sportspersons often complain of
Inadequate and outdated Sports equipment in these centers. It takes time for our athletes to
get used to modern equipment in International tournaments as they have practiced on old

3 https://www.myind.net/Home/viewArticle/challenges-faced-indian-athletes

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equipment at home. Not just in terms of equipment but they often fail to provide basic
facilities like beds and bathrooms.

Moreover, these centers are in cities which are quite far away from home for most athletes.
There is no grassroots program to groom potential athletes at young age from high schools
or colleges. According to the 8th All India School Education Survey half of the primary
Schools in many states don't even have playgrounds. China has built 850,000 gyms and 3000
specialized Sports facilities across the country so kids and youngsters can get an advantage
of having Sports facilities near home.Another major problem is coaching. Our coaches fail to
provide finer technical nuances which makes all the diference. It would be wise to employ
foreign Coaches where we lack world-Class coaching expertise.
3)Corruption:

Corruption has penetrated immensely in the system and has corrupted it at every level
which makes it extremely difficult for rookies to look at this as a career. Nepotism and
Favoritism is rampant. There are more politicians in the selection committees than retired
sportspersons. The government is allocating more than 1000 crores per year for Sports
development since last few years but we are yet to see its optimum use.There are reports of
corruption even in an athlete's Food Budget. It has been complained that food provided for
athletes is inadequate and of substandard quality. How can athletes achieve physical
strength of International standards without proper nutrition??

Cricket is sometimes made responsible for everything that is wrong with other Sports. We
often hear that India only loves Cricket. Cricket is successful because it is well-funded and
well-managed. Cricketers are groomed by BCCI from young age withUnder-14, under-15 like
tournaments and they get world class facilities for training.

In spite of all these problems our athletes driven by their passion manage to qualify in the
Olympics. That itself is a big achievement. But level of competition in the Olympics is higher
than what our athletes are trained for. So let's think before blaming our athletes when they
can't win as many medals as USA or China.

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 CONCLUSION

The movie tells about the problems faced by the athlete ad there is a lot to learn from paan
singh tomar life and his struggle . Human are made to work hard and utilize their competence
to achieve their dreams . but this movie shows us the problems which comes in the way of
hard work and dream.
This is a movie which expresses the truth of the life. The struggle from which an athlete have
to come across during his life. Sports teaches us to work hard, face the problems and never
give up. These teachings by sports can be applied to daily life. Success and failure are a part
of both the life and the sports. One can learn and apply sportsmanship in life as it makes life
so calm and composed.
I personally liked the movie very much and I recommend it to everyone who have an interest
in sports as well as to those who have sympathy towards the pity condition of athletes in
India. As India is home for many athletes and they are also passionate about sports this movie
supports them by raising a very important issue which is related to their future and career.

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