Soliloquy

Maidaan is based on the life of the legendary Hyderabadi and Indian football coach Syed Abdul Rahim.

Maidaan is one of the finest films made on Indian sport. Depicting the heroic life of the late Syed Abdul Rahim, known better as Rahim Sahab in Hyderabad’s and India’s football circles, this film takes the depiction of sports drama up a notch and leaves it at a peg almost as if daring its competitors to have a go.

Rahim Sahab – the finest football coach India, or Hyderabad has produced – was an enigma, yet deeply loved by his students, with whom he created history. He is still the only coach to have led India to gold in the Asian Games (1951 Delhi and 1962 Jakarta) to go with the semifinal finish in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Under his stewardship, India almost beat France in the 1960 Olympics in Rome only to draw at the last minute, which prompted the then-president of FIFA to give India the sobriquet of ‘Brazil of Asia.’  Ajay Devgn plays the role of Rahim Sahab in this film.

To make a layperson understand how big Rahim Sahab’s achievements were, they must be made to understand that let alone challenging top teams in the Olympics, Indian football has not even qualified for the quadrennial event ever since. And to think of India drawing 1-1 with a country like France today is laughable, to say the least. Where are such men today, my lord?

What blows one’s mind about the film is that such a legend remains largely unknown in his home city, which was portrayed finely in the film, to go with the rapport he enjoyed with his students. The film also touched upon the glory days of Indian football back when the starting lineup used to be made up of nine Hyderabadis at the very least.

To bring that to comparison, Hyderabad has not produced a single international footballer since. Maidaan captures the emotions of a dying Rahim Sahab expressing his final wish to see India glorious (he passed away soon after the 1962 Asian Games at the age of 53) while battling Indian bureaucracy and an antagonistic sports journalist at their very best.

Anyone who cares anything about this country, or sports, or all the things that make it great, should be able to enjoy Maidaan and tell tales about a man who stood firm in the face of adversity and convention, against strong opposition, all by himself, only wishing see the tricolour flying high.

PK Banerjee, Chuni Goswami and Tulsidas Balaram, dubbed Indian football’s holy trinity – the greatest footballers this country has produced were all students of Rahim Sahab and this is what they had to say about him while paraphrasing a Rasikh Azimabadi couplet:

“Shagird hai ham Rahim Sahab jaise ustad ke,
Ustaadon ka ustaad hai ustaad hamara.”

Shagird: Disciple

Rating: 5/5.

If you like my work, consider visiting my website to get in touch with more of my writing. You can follow me on Twitter as well. Also, sign up for the newsletter to get regular updates coming your way. I would love to talk to you!