Cast: Hurman Baweja, Amrita Rao, Anupam Kher, Dalip Tahil, Gulshan Grover

Director: Ajitpal Mangat

The other film of the week is about India's other `junoon' : `Luck By Chance' backgrounds cinema, `Victory' does ditto with cricket.

Vijay ( Hurman ), a cricketer from small-town Rajasthan is so good that he should, by rights, have been in the Indian team. But, and this is a story we know well, he doesn't even get a look-in on the Ranji.

`Victory' is about Vijay's rise-fall-rise, the heady feeling of success, and the perils of untrammeled avarice. A greedy agent ( Gulshan) gets his claws into the rising star, who slides down the slippery slope of here-now-gone-the-next-instant-fame, forgetting those who kept him grounded, `deshbhakt' dad ( Anupam), and best bud ( Amrita).

The film has been mounted lavishly, and no expense has been spared at making it look and feel authentic. A fleet of international cricketers have quite a lot of screen time. They include Harbhajan Singh and Jayasuriya and the dishy Brett Lee : their job is to stand around and applaud while our hero wins the matches.

Hurman's batting looks credible ( he trained for a few months), and his earnest playing of the part is miles away from the self-important, singing-dancing turn in his dud debut `Love Story 2050'. Anupam and Amrita lend able support. But again, what makes this film less than riveting is that we know so much of it-- the setting, the situations—already. Blame the carpet coverage of cricket on TV channels.

... contd.