Inspired by the Indian national football team coach and manager Syed Abdul Rahim, who is regarded as the architect of Indian football.
Syed Abdul Rahim coach of Indian football team is to be sacked after their big defeat in 1952 Olympics but he defends himself citing major reason of defeat was management failure.Rahim eyes the 1956 Olympics and wants to choose the team himself he gets talent from allover the country but media tycoon Mr Roy and management of football committee aren't happy with him as they favor only Bengal players. At 1956 Olympics the team finishes at fourth position which remains an overall record till date but at 1960 Olympics when the team is out in first round and Rahim is sacked by management thou the team received appreciation from French fans in a match against their team.This becomes a testing time for Rahim personally as well as professionally as he is diagnosed with lung cancer and has short time to live but he dreams of coaching the Indian football team again for 1962 Asian Games.—[email protected]
At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, the Indian national football team faces a major defeat against Yugoslavia with a score of 10-1. The Indian team plays barefoot, in pouring rain, unable to adjust to the conditions with poor stamina and technique. The Indian team players were badly injured playing against the aggressive Yugoslavians and had no answer to their tactics.The members of this All-India Football Federation blame the coach Syed Abdul Rahim (Ajay Devgn) for the team's under-performance. Rahim requests for permission to form another team with new players. The members of the federation are reluctant, especially Subhankar (Rudranil Ghosh), but Rahim receives support from President Anjan (Baharul Islam), who grants him permission.
Rahim says that India lost as they played barefoot, they play for 70 minutes in domestic tournaments (while international matches are for 90 minutes and hence, they concede goals in the last 20 minutes), and relying too much on old stars. Subhankar believes that Rahim is making a case to simply replace Calcutta players with players from Hyderabad. Rahim argues that to make a world class team, they need to think about India, and not regional quotas.Rahim stays in Hyderabad with his wife, son Hakim and 2 daughters (Nitanshi Goel and Aayesha Vindhara). Rahim is a chain smoker and an avid reader.
Rahim and Assistant Coach Hari (Istiyak Khan) then scout for players from all over India and forms a new team consisting of Tulsidas Balaram (Sushant Waydande) from Secunderabad, Peter Thangaraj (Tejas Ravishankar) from Hyderabad and P. K. Banerjee (Chaitanya Sharma) and Neville among others.Rahim also works with cobblers to construct a proper football shoe for his team. The existing shoes being provided to the team were causing a large number of foot injuries.
Roy Choudhary (Gajraj Rao), an influential journalist from Calcutta holds a grudge against Rahim, as he has formed the team with very less number of players from Calcutta. Roy is an influential journalist who has the favor of the Chief Minister. Roy is very passionate about football and is unlikely to drop the matter. Rahim dismisses Roy by saying that he does not understand football and his opinions do not matter.
At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the Indian team prepares to play against Australia. A player from the Australian team disrespects Neville D'Souza (Aryann Bhowmik) and makes him tie his shoes. Neville goes on to score a hat-trick and the Indian team wins the match with a score of 7-1, leaving the Australian team in shock. The Indian team eventually secures the fourth position at the Olympics.Meanwhile, Roy Choudhary and Subhankar plan to remove Rahim from the federation and make Subhankar the President. Roy tells Subhankar that if Rahim stays in the job, he will ensure that Bengal players will not get their due quotas in the Indian football team. Roy believes that since Bengal supports the sport most ardently, majority of the players spots should go to the state.
In 1957, Rahim's growing son Hakim says that he wants to play football, rather than becoming an engineer. Rahim says that Hakim will only be selected on merit. Rahim recruits new players such as Yousuf Khan (Prajwal Maski), Jarnail Singh, Fortunato Franco (Madhur Mittal), Arun Ghosh (Aaman Munshi), Ram Bahadur Chettri (Amandeep Thakur), O. Chandrashekar (Vishnu G Varrier), Trilok Singh Basera (Manandeep Singh) and Chuni Goswami (Amartya Ray) from Calcutta. Hakim is also selected for camp.At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, the Indian team is pitted against France in the group stage, which is considered the best team in the world. The match draws with a score of 1-1 and the Indian team fails to qualify for the knockout phase of the tournament. The federation removes Rahim as coach for the Indian team on the grounds on under-performance. Rahim also learns that he has developed lung cancer due to his excessive smoking habit and will not live long.
Rahim decides to spend his remaining days at home with his family and has frequent coughing fits. His wife, Saira (Priyamani), motivates him, telling him to not give up and pursue his dream of leading the Indian team to win a gold medal. Rahim approaches Anjan to help him reinstated to his coaching position. Anjan argues to Shubhankar that after Rahim left, India lost 7 out of their 8 matches played.Rahim requests the federation to let him coach the team again and promises that if the team does not win a gold medal at the upcoming Asian Games, he will not coach any team again in his life. Subhankar, who is now President, initially refuses but has to give in to his request as the other members of the federation (including the current coach of the Indian football team) give their votes to let Rahim coach the team.
Rahim begins to coach the team again and prepares them for the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta. Roy is not happy with the decision and prepares his own strategy to stop Rahim.The Finance Ministry refuses to let the Indian team participate in the competition, given insufficient funds. Roy was the one who convinced the Finance Ministry to drop Football as he argued that there was zero expectation of getting a medal from the football contingent.Rahim personally speaks with the Finance Minister Morarji Desai (Zaheer Mirza) and convinces him with the condition that only 16 players will be allowed to go for the competition, and no stipend will be paid. Rahim leaves out the rest, including his son Hakim (Devyansh Tripathi).
In Jakarta, Thangaraj, the team's goalkeeper is injured before their first match and is replaced by Pradyut Barman (Tanmay Bhattacharjee), which weakens the team as Barman is considerably shorter than Thangaraj. In their first match, the Indian team face defeat against South Korea (4-0), with the teammates blaming one another.After the match, Rahim makes them understand the importance of formation and coordination. In their next match against Thailand, Jarnail Singh (Davinder Gill), is gravely injured by an opponent. Rahim instructs the Indian team "to make them pay for it" and they go on to play more aggressively, winning the match with a score of 4-1.An Indian diplomat publicly criticizes the decision of not allowing Israel and Taiwan to play in the competition, which angers the people of Indonesia, leading to massive public protests against the Indian team.India beats Japan and Vietnam on their way to the finals.
On the day of the final match, where the Indian team would play against South Korea, the team bus is attacked by protesters and the military is brought in to provide security for them. Rahim's health deteriorates and he begins coughing up blood, but still motivates the team by delivering an inspiring speech.On seeing Rahim's determination, Roy Choudhary has a change of heart and starts supporting the Indian team. Thangaraj and Singh also rejoin the team for the match. The Indian team goes on to win the match with a score of 2-1, winning the only gold medal in Football at the Asian Games.Rahim died 9 months later, and since then India never qualified for a single football game at the Olympics.
