It was the year 1986. Growing up in a football-crazed Kolkata, I remember that leap towards the sky and the hand nudging the ball into the net. As the English players kept pleading with the referee, the cameras tried playing it back through multiple angles. “The Hand of God” made it to the Sport lexicon. A few minutes later, the short stocky dynamo in blue and white stripes, picked up the ball mid-field and did a solo run down the right, beating the English with a little feint here and a deft swerve there and scored for Argentina. The stamp of authority was so spectacular that there was no more debate left in anyone. For me , the god of football was born that day!
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews #AsifKapadia’s #DiegoMaradona now streaming on #MUBI. A Sports Documentary, did you ask? I have often maintained that the genre of Sports documentaries has very little to do with Sport itself; instead it is about the glory and the downfall, the passion and the pathos, about life itself. #Kapadia manages to keep you enthralled with his film based on the curated output from over 500 hours of footage. It is the story of #Maradona’s rise to the pinnacle, and then the fall from grace. It is the story of a boy and a man. A man who became the darling of the fans and then lost it all. It doesn't matter if you follow the game or not; this is a must watch any day!
#DiegoArmandoMaradona will be counted amongst the greatest in the beautiful game. What is intriguing though is that he was hated as much as he was loved. The “Hand of God” incident in the 1986 Mexcio World Cup quarter final earned him the moniker of “ a little bit of a cheater, and a whole lot of genius” and that explains the adulation and the derision!
Born in a humble shack in downtown Buenos Aires, Diego was spotted for his immense potential early on and the giddying rise to the top is a fascinating watch. #Maradona joins Napoli and enables the club to win the Serie A italian championship in the 1986-87 season. Along the way, you see the child-like innocence of the boy wonder turn to bewilderment and eventually put on a veneer of arrogance in order to cope with the frenzy. His move from Barcelona to Napoli is significant. One he identifies with a club that has been lingering at the bottom without any significant big names. On the other hand, the conflict between his chosen home and playing for his country in the 1990 World Cup, when Argentina beat Italy at the Napoli stadium was the last straw on the proverbial camel’s back. The fans then turned against him and unleashed a nightmare of investigation, wire-tapping and reputation-tarnishing that left him shattered. As you sit through the film enthralled, it strikes you that this is a story of genius and tragedy!
#AsifKapadia puts across the story of the fallen genius without a hint of judgment. Here is the story of contrasts. On the one hand there is complete and absolute mastery over the football and on the other is a total mess-up of his personal and professional life. Adding more slush to the mess is the link with mafia, drugs and a son who he refused to acknowledged for thirty long years!! The other beautiful contrast that the film delves upon is the naive, mama’s boy Diego who is simple, innocent and loveable. He is unable to manage the adulation of the fans and the politics of the sport and turns into Maradona. I think it was his wife #ClaudiaVillafame who says “I learnt that Diego and Maradona are different. Diego is a little kid with insecurities. Maradona was the character who had to face up to the demands of the football business and media”
In the words of #Maradona, “Football is the game of deceit. You feint and go in one direction. The other guy goes in the other direction”. For Maradona, no muscle mattered more than the brain. Height was always a disadvantage for him and he made it up with agility of thought, presence of mind and a fantastic understanding of the game. What he could not handle though was the clingy adulation and that is why Maradona took over. This transition is beautifully depicted in the film.
Much has been written about fandom. Sport is one content genre which engages all the senses of the viewer. The sports fan does not just follow his or her team; it is part of the culture, thinking and very being. The extreme scenes of fandom in the film leave you wondering and marvelling . The locker room madness, frenzied dancing and screaming, crowds throwing the traffic into chaos and people fainting and having seizures on the streets lying prone on the ground as if possessed help you understand what they feel about their heroes. Diego says italians don't really care about anything, their families or their children. All they care about is how Napoli performed last Sunday. It is into this surcharged atmosphere that Maradona enters and stokes the passion of the fans. And no wonder then that they abandon him as fast as they adopt him.
As you watch the film, you can see the distinct lack of comfort that Maradona has on his face when faced with the press-conferences or the crowds or the administration. He is at his best on the turf and that's where he belongs. As you watch the transformation of the boy wonder into one of the world’s best and then the drugs and prison leading to his putting on weight is tragic. I walked away thinking Maradona deserved better from his fans for the magic moments that he created for them!
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