SVF Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.’s Golondaaj (dubbed from the Bengali film of the same name) depicts the inspiring journey of Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari, also known as the father of Indian football. He was the first Indian to play the sport and open a professional football club in the country.
Dhrubo Banerjee and Dulal Dey’s story is inspiring and also exciting as it is about a sport and the hardships faced by a pioneer. Dhrubo Banerjee’s screenplay is pretty engaging but having said that, it must be added that it has limitations for the Hindi film-going audience, for two main reasons — football is not a very popular sport outside of Bengal, and the actors essaying the roles are unknown faces for the Hindi film audiences. Dialogues, written by Dhrubo Banerjee and Anirban Bhattacharya, are good.
Dev acts very well as Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari. Alexx O’Nell is good as Major Frederick Jackson. Ankit Majumder impresses as young Nagendra Prasad. Anirban Bhattacharya is fair in the role of Bhargab. Ishaa Saha is alright as Nagendra’s wife, Kamalini. Indrasish Roy has his moments as Captain Jitendra Banerjee. John Bhattacharya is okay as Binod. Srikanta Acharya (as Surya Kumari Sarbadhikari), Joydip Mukherjee (as Prasanna Kumar Sarbadhikari), Padmanabha Dasgupta (as Raja Anandakrishna Deb), Tulika Basu (as Nagendra’s mother), Mirchi Agni (as Naru), Ujaan Chatterjee (as Moni Das), Amitabh Acharya (as Surodas), Anirban Sikdar (as Dukhiram), Biswajit Das (as Jotadhari), Aniruddha Gupta (as Cyrus Ittarwala), Dulal Dey (as Purohit), Debesh Sarkar (as Mohidul), Jakir Hossen (as Majid Islam) and Indrajit Mazumdar lend reasonable support.
Dhrubo Banerjee’s direction is quite nice. Bickram Ghosh’s music is so-so. Lyrics are average. Soumik Haldar’s cinematography is nice. Editing (by Sanglap Bhowmick) should’ve been sharper. Dubbing is okay.
On the whole, Golondaaj may be a fair entertainer but it has bleak chances in Hindi because of lack of face value, lack of promotion of the film, and limited interest in the sport among the Hindi film-going audience.
Released on 12-11-’21 at Inox Malad (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay by SVF Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released in Delhi-U.P. Opening was weak.