Ajay Devgn in a still from Maidaan. (courtesy: YouTube)
Maidaan has finally crossed the ₹25 crore mark at the box office. According to a Sacnilk report, the Amit Sharma directorial collected ₹1.65 crore on day 7. So far, the biographical sports drama has amassed ₹25.26 crore (including special previews and collections from day 8) through ticket sales. Maidaan narrates the story of Syed Abdul Rahim, the coach and manager of the Indian football team, who served from 1950 until he died in 1963. Under his leadership, the Indian football team secured two gold medals in the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games and achieved the milestone of being the first Asian football team to reach the semi-finals of the 1956 Summer Olympics. The movie is headlined by Ajay Devgn as Syed Abdul Rahim, with Priyamani and Nitanshi Goel playing significant roles.
At the trailer launch event of Maidaan, Ajay Devgn talked about how the film challenged him as an actor. He expressed, “After 1983 (referring to India's win in the cricket world cup), football was lost somewhere. I was amazed that this happened in our country. We had Amit Sharma (director), who did extensive research. I would not call it just a sports film. It has got so much drama. As an actor, it was a film with so many layers. It is very strong in its emotional drama, apart from sports. After a long time, I had fun doing a film like this. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
“It feels very exciting when you watch any match at home (on TV) or if you are playing anywhere, suddenly you feel younger. It gets very exciting. Amit trained all the boys for a year, and they all play (football) so well. I haven't played (football) on screen, I just have one sequence,” Ajay Devgn added.
In an NDTV review, Saibal Chatterjee gave Maidaan 2 out of 5 stars and said, “The film has a song - Team India Hain Hum - that is instantly anachronistic. Back in the 1950s, the Indian football team was called just that - Indian football team. 'Team India' originated decades later as a branding exercise when, post-economic liberalisation, the nation's sporting bodies began to partner with corporate entities to promote various disciplines.
Saibal Chatterjee continued, “To heighten conflict, Maidaan falls back on an array of familiar tics. A woman delivers a pep-talk when a piece of shocking news threatens to break Rahim's spirit. The man takes a tough decision about his son when India's participation in the 1962 Asiad - which constitutes the film's climax - is under a cloud. Crowds in Jakarta turn against the Indians, leading to rioting and sloganeering on the streets and in the stadium. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong for the team.”
Maidaan is jointly backed by Zee Studios, Bayview Projects, and Fresh Lime Films.