BARECHEST CONFIDENCE

 

 

Circa 2002. On 13 July when Mohammed Kaif literally dived to finish the last run, the then Indian captain Sourav Ganguly perhaps didn’t even think twice before taking off his jersey. Standing in the balcony at Lord’s, he waved it vigorously, almost like a national flag. Critics labelled it a very uncricketing act. But beyond the paradigm of conduct and morality, Ganguly’s bare-chested defiance was literally the symptom of a resurgent India which is defiant, aggressive, hawkish and brandishes ‘an eye for an eye’ attitude. Players like Sehwag and Yuvraj had the least regard for conventional techniques; they flaunted a never-say-die attitude.



Top films

Kaho na...pyar hai (2000)

Lagaan (2001)

Dil chahta hai (2001)

Gadar (2001)

Munnabhai mbbs (2003)

Veer zaara (2004)

Rang de basanti (2006)



Cricket events

India becomes the third team to win after a follow-on 2001

Steve waugh terms india as the ‘final frontier’

Indi, sri lanka become joint winners of the icci champions trophy in 2002. a year later, india is beaten in the finals of 2003 world cup by australia

India wins odi series against arch rivals pakistan 2006 The team known for its defeatist attitude was fighting till the last ball and annihilating rivals with clinical precision. Even when they lost there was no disgrace as they lost fighting and left the field with their head held high, the legacy of which continued even when Sourav was no more captain. Yet it is not just about cricket. Cricket after all was a reflection of confident India. The rising forex reserve (from around $25b in 1998 to $193b on 23 Feb 2007), second fastest GDP growth rate, India Inc.’s insatiable shopping spree of foreign companies (266 cross-border acquisitions were made by Indian companies in 2006 worth $15.3b while in the first two months of 2007 deals worth $20.9b have already taken place) and the élan with which it has learned to extract the maximum possible mileage from every global power without committing her allegiance to any, all point towards a mature and a formidable India.

If in the 70s and 80s, Bollywood was a reflection of society then in this millennium Bollywood is redefining how India should be. If Lagaan catapulted India to the final frontier of the Oscar nomination, Dil Chahta Hai echoed the self-assured, cool and keep-smiling, live-today mantra of Indian youth. While Black, Nishabd and Black Friday vindicated that even Bollywood films can deal with complex issues and still offer a visual treat to the audience, Lakshya and Rang De Basanti depicted the maturing of the young India ready to die for a national cause. It wasn’t for any reason Goldman Sachs sang paean about the future of India and it isn’t without any reason that we are predicting the victory of India in the forthcoming World Cup.