Sports and Culture
WATCH: 83 teaser shows glimpse of the catch that changed the 1983 World Cup final
A 1-minute teaser of '83', released on Friday, shows Kapil Dev taking the catch to dismiss Viv Richards - the moment which turned Indian cricket around.
Kapil Dev's backward running catch to dismiss Viv Richards in the 1983 World Cup final - the moment that is unanimously considered to have transformed Indian cricket - is shown in a one-minute clip of the Ranveer Singh-starrer film 83, released on Friday. The much-awaited Kabir Khan-directed sports biopic is scheduled to release in cinema halls on December 24 and a trailer of the film is set to be released on November 30.
The content of the one-minute teaser trailer is a highly stylized reimagination of Kapil Dev's historic catch, a moment which has gone down in Indian cricket's history as a seminal moment, but a moment live audiences in India would have missed out on 38 years ago because Doordarshan had lost signal. The moment was preserved on tape, however, and has been played and replayed by fans a few billion times.
Till Kapil's catch to dismiss Viv, West Indies had been cruising in their chase of India's total of 183. Viv had hit Madan Lal, the bowler with the historic wicket against his name, for three fours in the previous over. Kapil Dev, who had given a fiery dressing room speech a while ago, would have been hoping against hope while fielding close to the boundary at midwicket.
Speaking about the catch at a 2017 reunion event of the 1983 World Cup team, Kapil had related: "The previous over he bowled, Madan Lal had conceded two-three boundaries. I said to him, 'Mandi pa, you take a break, I'll bring you back after a few overs.' He said, 'Kapil, give me the ball. I have dismissed Viv Richards once before, I will do it again. One more over, please.'
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"Madan Lal, speaking at the same event, had narrated the catch: "When Viv Richards hit the ball in the air, Kapil Dev was running from midwicket in one direction and from the other direction, Yash was going for it too. I started yelling, "Yash, rukh, rukh! (wait) You don't go for the catch."
"Kapil was getting under the ball and I knew Kapil being such a good fielder, he will catch it. But seeing Yashpal also running for it, I prayed that he doesn't go collide with Kapil."
This exact moment is what the 83 teaser shows - Viv Richards miscuing his heave to the leg side, Yashpal Sharma and Kapil Dev going for the catch, as history awaits.
83, which chronicles the journey of the Indian cricket team as they won their first World Cup in England, was initially scheduled for a release in April 2020 but was postponed due to Covid-19. There had been reports that it was set for an OTT release but the makers held off releasing the sports drama on a streaming platform. A long wait for the film comes to an end next month, as it gears up for a big pre-Christmas release!