Diego Maradona, Good but could have been better

Even now, I keep pulling my son Chaithanya’s leg saying, “You were just an hour or two away from Maradona when he was opening Chemmannur Jeweller’s showroom in Kannur and you missed him.” Chaithu was vacationing in Kerala and he knew all about the superstar footballer’s visit. Even Mammooty and Mohanlal fans wouldn’t gather this much to watch their favourite actor as did Maradona’s fans who came from all over Kerala. Two of them (not confirmed) even had a heart attack. 

Back to the documentary film now playing in theatres in India. The presentation of the documentary is good, very similar to what Peter Jackson did with the “They Shall not grow old” documentary on the World War 1 veterans in that that there aren’t any personal interviews with people talking to the camera about Maradona. Whenever a voiceover occurs only a mention in titles is made on screen as to who is speaking. Considering the amount of free footage still available online it is surprising some very important footage was left out, particularly of a crying Maradona after the defeat in the 1990 World Cup Final to Germany. It was a heart wrenching moment for Maradona fans all over the world. Germany’s defeat in the 1986 World Cup Final was avenged but only with a controversial penalty kick in favour of them. It was really no big victory. Claudio Cannigia who alongwith Maradona won most of the games that year was out on yellow cards. Argentina entered the game with four players suspended and ended it with nine men on the field, overall losing over half their squad due to injury or suspension. They also should have been awarded a deserving penalty but that didn’t happen. But what was not mentioned in the documentary is the fact the Maradona was fouled over 50 times in the 1990 tournament, a world record. Every team including Germany (Guido Buchwald was the guy for the Germans) had at least one player to mark Maradona. Such was his stature in the tournament. 

One annoying moment was at 1:45 of the film when there is a shot of Maradona at a Christmas party. For over a minute the camera just focussed on his face, Maradona seems to be intensely thinking and looking into some void. It is a painfully tiring scene and one that could have been replaced with the one (from the 1990 world cup) I mentioned earlier.  Two lovely instrumentals end the documentary. They have been composed by Antionio Pinto. They are available on Jiosaavan. Overall, a must watch for Maradona and football fans. To quote the current Argetinian legend Messi, “Even if I played for a million years, I’d never come close to Maradona. Not that I’d want to anyway. He’s the greatest there’s ever been.”