The movie keeps us trapped in this idyllic, fairy tale like story of a modern Indian deity, by demonstrating a parallel with the story of India’s exponential economic growth during the Sachin years, and the dramatic events that took place in Mumbai, the city of his birth, during his cricketing days. As he turned into a husband and father himself, he evolved into an affectionate and respected elder like Ramesh, except dramatically transformed, like a Hindu God, from the academic seclusion of his father’s world, to an international sports celebrity.Īt some point in the film, Sachin explains his religious faith, saying that when he looks at the auspiciousness of events in his life, he sees a guiding hand in the destiny that has favored him so extravagantly. Born into a family of a middle class Maharashtrian scholar – the home of the poet, novelist and Professor, Ramesh Tendulkar – Sachin was fortunate to be extensively photographed and remembered by charming anecdotes from his extended Shivaji Park family. Strange as it may seem, it is the use of the cricketer’s own photos and home videos that is director James Erskine’s trump card in the film. It is this aspect of Sachin’s persona that the movie ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’ captures well and hangs on to for the duration of the documentary. Tendulkar are of his childhood a curly haired child crouching in a copy book stance with a small bat, a boy nursed into the game by his adoring half brother, Ajit, loved and spoilt by his much older siblings, yet respectful of his elders, and one who was made to feel secure enough to weld his passion and his profession into a single whole at the age of 16 an age when most young Indians are buried in their school books, without the slightest idea of what they are going to do next. Because his extraordinary career in cricket spanned 24 years, Sachin Tendulkar is our ‘Peter Pan’ figure, a genius of a boy who never turns into an adult, and whose free spirited image grips two generations of Indians in their growing up years.