Fun for the whole family, this story of a desperate sports agent and the young men he brings from India to America to be trained as baseball pitchers is inspiring, touching, and feel-good entertainment, based on real events. Jack and I were craving a baseball movie and were immensely satisfied. Jon Hamm (last blogged in Clear History) is slowly moving away from Mad Men's Don Draper (he won't complete the move until he messes up his hair) in the starring role of J.B. Bernstein. Glad to see Lake Bell (most recently In a World...) as the down-to-earth neighbor, Aasif Mandvi (Premium Rush) plays harried so well as Bernstein's partner, and Alan Arkin (last in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone) brings comic relief as always, this time as a semi-retired sports scout. Suraj Sharma (his acting debut was in Life of Pi), Madhur Mittal (I didn't mention him in Slumdog Millionaire, but he played the brother), and a Hindi actor named Pitobash are sweet as the pitchers and an eager sidekick in this classic fish-out-of-water tail, er, tale.
Director Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock (2007), Lars and the Real Girl (2007), 6 episodes of United States of Tara 2009-10) leads with an albeit Disney-fied sure hand from a script by Thomas McCarthy (most recently wrote Win Win, another satisfying movie with a sports theme). Hungarian Cinematographer Gyula Pados brings us the colors and crowds of India contrasting with the lushness and luxury of Los Angeles and Atlanta.
A.R. Rahman (most recently scored People Like Us) returns to his native roots with a fun score that you can stream song by song and possibly download free from this page. If for some reason the link expires because someone at Walt's company catches on, just search for "a.r. rahman million dollar arm" on youtube and you'll come up with quite a few links. I particularly liked this one and this.
Definitely don't run out of the room when the credits begin, as you would miss a photo essay of the real guys. Rotten Tomatoes' critics are lukewarm at 61% with audiences slightly hotter at 76. We liked it!
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