Jungle Cry Review: This sports drama is untold story of 12 underserved tribal boys of Odisha and their journey of winning the U-14 Rugby World Cup
Jungle Cry Movie Rating: 3 Stars
Just watched Jungle Cry movie on Lionsgate Play. So let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Abhay Deol, Sherry Baines, Stewart Wright, Atul Kumar and Emily Shah
Director: Sagar Ballary
Release Date: 3rd June on Lionsgate Play
Story: Movie tells the remarkable true story of twelve impoverished Indian boys reaching athletic glory in the 2007 Under-14 Rugby World Cup in London. The team came from the Kalinga Institute of Social Science in Odisha, India. They were from broken homes, some orphaned, playing a game they literally started learning months before the tournament. The boys were cobbled together by headstrong coaches who dared them to be great no matter the circumstances. Their journey from distant villages separated by castes, food, and culture to rugby champions reminds that greatness can be achieved from the most unexpected places.
In 2007, Bhubaneswar India, English rugby coach Paul Walsh (Stewart Wright) gets an eyeful of possibilities on a taxi ride to the Kalinga Institute. He watches as a group of boys chase each other for a jar of marbles. Paul was looking for twelve children to field the Indian national team at the Junior Rugby World Cup. He convinces the school’s founder and headmaster, Dr. Achyuta Samanta (Atul Kumar) but they have a formidable obstacle in their way.
Rudra Singh (Abhay Deol) was hired by Samanta to teach the boys soccer. This was a tall order in a country devoted to cricket. Singh traveled to astonishingly poor villages recruiting for the school. These were children who worked hard in fields to support their families. Many of them didn’t even have shoes. He promised to change their lives through education and athletics.
Rudra scoffs at the absurdity of teaching Indian boys rugby. The idea of playing against world-class players abroad in four months was ridiculous. Rudra, a strict taskmaster with iron discipline, wanted to quit the school. Samanta convinces Rudra to stay for the sake of the children. Now he and the boys had to actually learn rugby. They begin an odyssey that took them to heights they never dared to dream. What happen next is all about this film.
Positives
1. Excellent Performances
2. Cinematography
3. Climax
4. Direction
5. Story
Negatives
1. Length
2. Music
3. Screenplay
Durgesh Tiwary’s View : When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie in my free time because is based on real incident.
Twelve underprivileged children from the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences in Orissa, India, go on to win the prestigious U14 Rugby World Cup in England in 2007 in just 4 months of training.
Through the movie, the makers have tried to portray the struggles and the challenges that started for the folks at the institute, right from forming the football team, to eventually prepping them up for a different sport altogether Rugby. The movie touches base upon a number of social issues for the kids and their families, including basic amenities. The overall plot of the boys playing a sport is easily understood. Rugby is not a common sport in many parts of the world. Jungle Cry teaches the audience along with the characters. We watch as the children drill to learn the basics. Paul also shows a cartoon that explains the scoring system. These scenes are fundamental to the third-act tournament. The thrilling games would be nonsensical if viewers didn’t know the rules.
Shot in quasi-documentary style, movie is not just a feel-good and honest retelling of a true and inspiring sports tale but also delves into human emotions remarkably well. The narration (Atul Kumar as the narrator) is so fluid that it gives a quick lesson on the rules of Rugby that any layman will understand. The film also touches upon the many issues that not just Indian sportspersons but also underserved sections of the country face—casteism, lack of facilities, poor infrastructure and so on. Samanta proudly talks of taking the Kalinga Insitute from children huddled in two rooms to sixty thousand students. He leveraged everything the school had to give his students a chance. All in all, the movie offers everything a sports drama would, though you expect bits that could be more hard-hitting, but the team gets it right for its majority. My view on this movie Recommended
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