Sachin: A Billion Dreams - Relive your life

The movie is an inspiring journey into the life a great cricketer and a fantastic human being

I don't like cricket. I don't know Sachin. And I don't care if he is the 'God of Cricket.' All these are lies. Lies that I had to tell myself to perhaps give justice to this column, as a 'reviewer.' 
Two minutes into Sachin: A Billion Dreams, the biographic film on Sachin Tendulkar, the cricketing legend, I drop all such pretence. 
How are you going to 'review' his life? How are you going to even look at the man's life, in all his honesty and 'criticise' it?  That is why this 'review' won't be rated with stars. 
After all, in every match that he played, even if India lost, Sachin had always won - in people's hearts.  
As Amitabh Bachchan, like many others in this film, tells us, one stopped watching matches after Sachin walked away from the crease. And when he blasted off in vintage style, and looked up to thank God and his father, after every century, a nation went into frenzy. 
Sachin: A Billion Dreams is thus a fantastic tribute to the cricketer but more to the man himself - depicting how he turned his passion for cricket into that of a nation.  
And what makes this film by James Erskine, relevant, more than as a biographical film, is how the director tries to connect Sachin with the larger evolution of India - from economic liberalisation to politics, society and the brand revolution.  
The film also reminds you why Indo-Pak matches are always feisty, as the camera seeks the archived rolls of the Partition, highlighting, that yes, the two are one people - divided only 'by a map' for whatever reason.  
So when Sachin earns the respect of the legendary Abdul Qadir and entire Pakistani team with a bat-blistering performance, despite a broken nose, it is not just Sachin's baptism by fire that you watch. As Sachin tells you, it also inspires you to bury the fear in you.  
The marvel of this tribute is that it takes you through your own life moments - if you are a cricket fan. It makes you relive life again - and then, it makes you sit back and see how Sachin as a person went through those very moments.
So we learn of how Sachin had locked up in a room for two hours after not living up to his own expectations, and in one of the most tender yet poignant moments in the film, how he learnt to face Shane Warne, and how the two became friends.
You learn about how Sachin would listen to music - Dire Straits, his favourite - pick one song and play it over and over again to control his emotions. You discover again the pathos that Sachin went through when he returned to the crease after his father's death - and many, many more.
Sachin: A Billion Dreams is not to be perceived as film; while its makers have brilliantly camouflaged its 'documentary' nature and marketed it well to make many billions more out of the man,  let us say, we know along with Sachin that it is not money or runs that make his life so beautiful: It is his humility.
Perhaps, we could take that just one trait from the man and be better human beings ourselves.
Sachin: A Billion Dreams
Directed by: James Erskine
Starring: Sachin Tendulkar
Rating: N/A
Now running at theaters in the UAE