Cast: Sachin Tendulkar, Arjun Tendulkar, Sara Tendulkar Mayuresh Pem, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Anjali Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Amitabh Bachchan.

Director: James Erskine; ‎Sivakumar Ananth

Production: Ravi Bhagchandka, Carnival Motion Pictures

Written by: James Erskine; ‎Sivakumar Ananth

Genre: Biopic

Duration: 2h 20m

The 90’s were those illustrious times in which Indian cricket dominated World Cricket. ‘Sachin A Billion Dreams’ is a biopic of the fabled cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and gives you so much more than what you are expecting.
More than a descriptive docu-drama, the film is a celebration of moments that you have never seen before, especially those between Sachin and his elder brother, his family and his friends.

If you are a 90s kid you might know that India chanted his name like he was another religion. The film is a story narrated by Sachin himself. It’s hard to trust someone when you don’t see a person in the eye. There’s a lot to see in this film which is other than the things you already know, like the time he held his first bat gifted to him by his sister to cradle his newborn daughter.

The chorus is so powerful, that at a certain points of the film even the audience starts singing along with it. “Sachin-Sachin, Sachin-Sachin” reverberates in the theatre and you get taken along.

Director James Erskine focuses on people who are closest to the God of Cricket. The only person whose role is detailed and etched out well is the character of Sachin’s wife Anjali, who actually sacrifices her career in medicine (pediatrician) to take care of the family so that her husband can focus on his magical career, and her commitment to him comes along with a lot of responsibility which she takes on.

Another poignant part of the film is the time when the issue of match fixing in Indian Cricket takes over the narrative. You get a peek into the intricate dressing-room politics between Sachin and Azharuddin, the other players, the advertisers, BCCI and Doordarshan, the public broadcaster, which holds rights to most Indian Cricket tournaments.

The interesting part of this documentary is that, it shows how deeply pressure as well as criticism affects Sachin’s performances. How ungratefully the world is when his children are ridiculed at their school when a match doesn’t go right, and how personal attacks made on the man through headlines disturb Sachin the player. The times when India was defeated with nine-wickets and Sachin’s low World Cup record of 125 runs against Australia had angered his fans throughout the country and those scenes have been portrayed very well. Commandos needed to be hired to protect Sachin and his family and even advertisers had withdrawn all television commercials in which he had appeared, endorsing their products.

Sachin also talks about the Greg Chappell’s control over the Indian Cricket team, and how the entire team went through catastrophic times then. India too has changed significantly through Tendulkar's entire career.

By the end of the film his late father Ramesh Tendulkar says in the film, everyone felt Sachin was a member of his or her families. There sentiments were attached to every action of his.

I was overwhelmed, got a little teary eyed in the end. Especially during Sachin’s speech in which he pays tribute to his coach Shri Ramakant Achrekar whom he invokes and whom he requests to now finally say “Well done” to him. When he tells his coach that it is the end of his twenty-four yearlong glorious career, so now it will not go to his head.

This film is much more than just a docu-drama. Emotions flow as the chorus grows with the sound of “Sachin.. Sachin.. Sachin.. Sachin..”