J. B. Bernstein finds two talented Indian boys to recruit them for his baseball team, back in his homeland, but the journey to the success of these two boys guided by Bernstein is the essence of Disney’s new biographical sports drama, Million Dollar Arm.
Plot: This movie is based on the real life incident of the independent sports agent, J. B. Bernstein, who sets out to find the next star pitcher after being inspired by the cricket players in India. When in India, he decides to conduct a talent hunt with the name of the title and finds out two non-players who has the potential of being very fast pitchers. After bringing them to The States with him, starts Bernstein’s journey uphill trying to make the two foreign boys adjust to the culture shock and perfect the skill for which they are brought here.
Hamm has very much been able to portray the character of Bernstein as the borderline selfish and opportunist sports agent who likes to talk big at first and then struggles to fulfill his promises later. The transformation of his character as he changes from a person who did not feel necessary to help his recruits feel at ease in his house in LA to the man who manages to befriend them and form a family-like bond is also shown very smoothly.
Suraj Sharma
(starring in “Life of Pie”) and
Madhur Mittal
(The reckless criminal older brother in “
Slumdog Millionaire
”), play the Indian recruits, Rinky Singh, and
Dinesh Patel
respectively. They too have taken a huge leap upwards in the level of maturity of their acting and have also touched our hearts as the confused outsiders trying their best to fit in. We can also see the effortlessly smooth performance of
Aasif Mandvi
as Bernstein’s witty, sarcastic partner, Ash Vasudevan, and also
Alan Arkin
as the moody but highly instinctive retired baseball scout who naps through most of Bernstein’s talent hunt in India.
The movie is an undoubtedly inspirational watch with some positive and driven characters. However, the movie could have been improved a tad bit more by focussing on the lives of the two young boys who come to Los Angeles with an almost unknown man to play a completely foreign sport so far away from home.
Verdict: To this sports drama, that is inspirational, true, funny and also a big crowd pleaser, I give The Million Arm, 3.5 out of 5 victories.