Azhar: An incisive movie about a cricketer's life

Movies serve many purposes: they can help us learn a language or teach us something new. Sometimes they even make us think about the eternal questions of our existence. Azhar can be said to have served some of these purposes. 

Azhar is a biographical drama about Mohammad Azharuddin, a former Indian international cricketer and one of the most prominent stars of the game. For the uninitiated, check out the stumped.app which is full of explanations, trivia, news and math reviews about India's favourite game. 

So, back in 2016, the world got to see the biopic of Azharuddin, which showed the journey of the former Indian captain. It not only captured the struggles he faced as a sportsman but also showed his human side. That made this drama an important movie about cricket. 

Mohammad Azharuddin is arguably India’s most controversial cricket captain as he admitted to throwing matches for money and thus received a lifetime cricket ban. His personal life was also filled with controversies as he had a publicized affair with actress Sangeeta Bijlani, which resulted in the dissolving of his first marriage. 

This film was supposedly created after the approval of Azharuddin. Though this cricketer has a quite a few achievements in his career, this feature is not just restricted to cricket. It tries to project a different perspective on things which made Azhar’s persona a controversial one. These things include the match-fixing allegations that got him banned from the sport, and his decision to leave his wife for actress Sangeeta Bijlani.

With an talented cast and good directorial ability, this movie is unmissable for all the cricket fans and for anyone who would like to get an insight into this sports industry. Below are some of the most interesting facts about the feature: 

● The movie was produced in India and was shot in some of the important stadia including Lord’s Cricket Ground and St John’s Wood.

● It was released worldwide on May 13, 2016. It raked in $147,521 from across the world. The estimated budget was Rs 38 crore.

● The film had Emraan Hashmi (Azhar), Nargis Fakhri (Sangeeta) and Prachi Desai (Naureen) in lead roles.