On Ch4 Later tonight

Jan said:

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, an Indian made film appear to be based around a
cycling championship
see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104561/plotsummary

Did anyone see this? It was nuts. I enjoyed it, despite it's being about
three hours long.

It was like an Indian 90s high-school version of _Grease_, combined with
_The Outsiders_, and as elemental as a Greek tragedy.

The characters were clearly modelled on Italians - they mostly looked
like Italians, they had Italian-style cinematic father-son and fraternal
relationshiops; one of the key elements in the film is a fabled Italian
bicycle (not to mention the cycling itself).

The kids were nearly *all* dressed in Dorling-Kindersley
encyclopaedia-style clothing (Gap-type trousers and skirts, and solid
primary colour tops). That's when they weren't wearing huge chunky
knitted sweaters.

There were *no* women in the film, apart from one or two nuns. None. All
the fathers appeared to be widowers and the kids motherless.

The film contained several fight sequences, which became more frequent
and longer towards the end. They were the only rather dull points.

The soundtrack and choreography: both were brilliant. The first song
suddenly and without warning turned into "Pinball Wizard" for four
lines. The rich bad guys did a song and dance routine in the
inter-school dance competition which would have had both Chuck Berry and
John Travolta looking up to see what was happening.

Finally, the cycling: it was absurd and somehow gripping.

Daniele