Two athletes from India, one agent from L.A., half a movie from Disney

/ May 19, 2014
(From syracusenewtimes.com)

(From syracusenewtimes.com)

Sitting through the two-hours-plus of Disney’s “Million Dollar Arm,” I witnessed mounds of hope, greed, failure and success. Filtered through the lens of two cultures, in fact.

Short synopsis:

In a true story, Jon Hamm plays a sports agent who tries to save his bankrupt business by holding a talent contest in India to locate cricket bowlers with the athletic potential to become professional baseball pitchers in the United States.

Big potential, is there not?

And there was much I liked about what unfolded in front of my dear wife Karen and I. The actors who played Indian athletes Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh — Madhur Mittal and Suraj Sharma — were outstanding. Lake Bell showed soul as a backyard cottage renter whose mission it was to guide these two young men and show agent J.B. Bernstein the error of his business-blinded ways. Alan Arkin was cool as usual as an eccentric baseball scout, and Aasif Mandvi was a good foil as J.B. second-in-command.

I even felt fairly satisfied when I walked out of the theater.

The video clips and still pictures of the real-life pitchers Patel and Singh after they signed contracts with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in 2008 shown during the credits had been pretty cool.

But every mile that came between me and the theater, the more I felt short-changed. Too much business? Not enough heart? Too much American culture? Not enough Indian ramifications?

When I got home I googled the pitchers’ names, and came up with this story, published this week, by Sports Illustrated.

Patel pitched two seasons in rookie ball and was released. He’s back in India.

Singh has pitched through parts of four seasons, rising as high as Class A, but has battled arm injuries, and has had the famous Tommy John surgery. He still hopes to return to pitching here.

If you’d like to read my review of ‘Million Dollar Arm’ on the Syracuse New Times site, click the link below.

http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/million-dollar-arm-million-dollar-house-two-cent-heart/

What is your favorite sports movie of all time? Have you ever tried to watch the sport cricket? Do you think sports as a business is exploiting young people from other countries, or giving them a chance to make money to better their families back home?

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51 thoughts on “Two athletes from India, one agent from L.A., half a movie from Disney”

  1. Interesting post film details on the pitchers. Here are a couple of “Indian” details. Patel is a very common name particularly in Gujurat where we were headquartered. Sort of a Smith, or Jones Indian name. All Indian movies are at least 2 hours and there is a 15 minute break in the middle for bathroom and snack time. Indians are notorious for “audience participation” cheering , and booing and clapping! We saw “Iron Man ” and you can only imagine that there was much cheering at each amazing scene. They do get respectfully quiet so that dialogue was audible, though we were reading in the non-English ones. Iron Man was released a few days earlier in India than in the US. that was a shock but the movie industry has discovered that there are 1.4 billion Indians who love America and American films ! Bollywood is now the number one producer of film in the world ! This ends the lesson for the day! 😎

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  2. In true British style, I love a good game of cricket! 🙂

    The rules can be a tad confusing to those new to the game, but no less confounding than the rules of baseball – my American best friend has been trying to get me into baseball but I don’t have a clue how it works!

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  5. I’m not much of a sports fan either so I doubt I’ll see the movie. The trailer left me with the feeling that the Indians were being exploited. I know that to a certain extent any professional sport participant is leveraged to make money for those who are richer and in return receive monetary awards and fame. Still I honestly don’t like the way they are discarded when their performance drops. However, it can be said that they go into it with their eyes wide open, knowing the eventual outcome. That is not true of the Indians – they are transplanted here into our culture for our amusement and enrichment. I don’t know Mark, maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way as I know this has been typical for millenia – transplanting sports figures into societies with which they are unfamiliar, whether it’s Russian hockey players or African runners. I often wonder what happens to them when they return home – are their lives enriched or do they go to their deathbeds longing for a return of their fame? What are your thoughts on this?

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    • My hope is that they take the good of our culture, the giving nature, and share the new wealth and figure ways to strengthen education. My fear is that they take the bad of our culture, the greed, and find ways to exploit the less fortunate in their home lands.

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  7. I am sorely disappointed, I has high hopes for this one. It is like what you said about “Draft Day,” when I was so excited to see another sports movie with Kevin Costner. I was hoping to see this and go, “Awww…!” Too bad, but you did the leg work so I will wait for free rental at the library or redbox for a cheaper price than theater pricing. Thanks, Mark!

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    • I am feeling like a cold bucket of water because there was a lot of good things about the movie, Robin, but I really went into deep thinker mode to pick at what I didn’t like and what I wished had been tacked. I hope you enjoy it on Red box.

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      • Don’t feel bad, we all need to say the truth, even if it has merits in the movie, if you found flaws it is best to let us all know them! I think that is the tough job of being a professional reviewer and journalist. So much easier for me, who likes almost all movies, except Warning! “Neighbors” is gross and my youngest daughter and I really found NO redeeming factors. It started out nicely, but really went awry!
        Hey, if you want to change that ‘has’ to ‘had’ in my comments, that would do me a big favor! I cannot believe my English when I am hurrying to beat the library time clock! Smiles, Robin

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  8. Fave sports movie of all time=bad news bears.

    I was looking fwd to seeing more of Don Draper. Thx for this review Mark. I’m fence sitting on this one now.

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  9. I probably won’t see this movie.

    Favorite sports movie? RUDY. Hands down. I think. 😉

    I don’t trust any big machine of a corporation. But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the chances some folks get when they are recruited. I’m sure there are pros and cons to each story. But they can make that choice and I guess I feel they are lucky to have that choice (“they” being anyone, here or anywhere, who is recruited and given an opportunity). Having choice is a great thing.

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  11. I’m not much of a sports fan Mark. I guess we’ve established that already. My kids never played team sports much, just a few pickup basketball games in the driveway, or throwing a ball at each other, with or without criminal intent (I was afraid to ask), but my grandkids have been involved in team sports for a few years each. None of them were really dedicated to it. One granddaughter is in the marching band at her high school, and on the tennis team last semester, but not an enthusiast, and youngest grandson is playing soccer right now on a take it or leave it level. Naturally they all love UK basketball, because it would be illegal to be in this family and not be a fan of UK. We would be run out of Kentucky for that offense.

    I did watch Blind Side, and loved the movie while hating the book. That was a new twist for me, but it does happen once in a while. I liked the human interest part more than the football part though. But what can you expect from a person who hates having volley balls hit toward her?

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    • I loved the human interest part of this movie more than the baseball part, too, Angie. I wanted more of the heart of these Indian kids and less of the gee-whiz of the glamour of the agent. And, yes, ‘Blind Side’ was awesome because of that personal side.

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  12. The trailers on TV made it seem so unique and interesting. Even if Patel returned to India, surely it was good for him to have another life experience he would never have otherwise have had.

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    • You are right, Kerbey, I do think he benefited from his time in America, learning about another culture. I hope he was able to help others in India as a result. I think he is teaching others how to play baseball, as I recall from reading the SI story. That’s pretty good.

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  13. I’m not likely to watch this movie, after reading your short synopsis here. I’m not a sports fan; when I watch a movie about another culture, I want to learn something about that culture; I prefer movies bursting with heart, and I hate seeing what people do to people who are looking for opportunities. I resist saying that big business or corporations do anything; they are not people. I’m thinking about how the executives/managers of teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates treat the athletes, and how the executives/managers of mega star-makers like Disney treat the actors, but people of all sizes and shapes do it.

    The closest I got to watching cricket was on Downton Abbey. I did like watching curling a few times. And I always enjoyed watching my kids in whatever sport they were doing.

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    • I like watching curling a lot, Grace, and I’m sure watching your children play any sports was rewarding. The growth and interaction sports can provide is exciting.

      The heart of the movie, contrasting cultures and business vs. personal ramifications, is always worth inspecting and discussing, I think. And so I wish the movie had gone deeper.

      Thank you so much for adding your voice here, my fellow Central New Yorker.

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  14. i like john hamm, i like sports, i like movies and i had a yen to see this one. it sounds like a bit of a disappointment though, even though there was lots of potential. thanks for looking up the real guys to see how they fared, not always the same happy ending in real life. i have watched a bit of a cricket match, but i didn’t really understand the rules very well, and my daughter told me that they can be very long matches in australia and other places. i have nothing against players coming here from other places to make it big in the sports world, and it sometimes helps them to provide for their families in ways they never would have been able to otherwise. most of our wings are from europe or russia or scandanavia, and most of our tigers are from south america and those have worked out quite well.

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    • You might like it, Beth. I did, mostly, while watching, and less, while analyzing. I agree with you about how the foreign players working out well for the North American franchises. I want to know more about how it works out for their families and homelands besides the influx of cash.

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      • yes, i agree. i always wonder what the long term effect is for them and their families. i know that a lot of the wings have returned to their countries when they retire and some have become coaches, helping the new ones coming up, and trying to give them the same opportunities they had.

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  15. I too watched this movie on last Saturday.I liked the movie, As far as I think, bringing talent on table cant be exploiting. When we exposed to different land and culture. Definitely it takes time and adjustment. However brings opportunities and Exposure too. For Cricket. I did watch this game. And a big mass of India is huge fan of cricket.But I enjoyed the way it presented in Movie……. Enjoyed your Reviews 🙂

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