Striker is a 2010 Bollywood action-drama film written, directed and produced by Chandan Arora. It stars Siddharth, a famous Telugu film actor who also acted in Rang De Basanti fame, and Padmapriya, a Malayalam and Tamil actress debuting in Bollywood, in lead roles with Vidya Malvade, Nicolette Bird, Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas and Aditya Pancholi essaying supporting roles.[2] The film had a theatrical release on 5 February 2010. It also premiered on YouTube the same day and hence it became the first ever Indian film to premiere on YouTube internationally at the same time as it is released in cinemas throughout India on 5 February 2010.
Cast
- Siddharth as Suryakant Sarang
- Padmapriya as Madhu
- Aditya Pancholi as Jaleel
- Ankur Vikal as Zaid
- Anupam Kher as Inspector Farooque
- Seema Biswas as Surya's Mother
- Vidya Malvade as Devi Sarang
- Anoop Soni as Chandrakant Sarang
- Nicolette Bird as Noorie
- Bhavya Gandhi as young suryakant
Plot
Set in a Mumbai ghetto in the mid '80's and based on true life accounts, Striker is a story of triumph of human spirit over indomitable odds.
Born into a poor family, Surya grows up with few luxuries. Poor health keeps him away from school often and that is when his elder brother, Chandrakant, introduces him to carrom. Winning the Junior Carrom Championship at 12 is not enough to keep Surya's fire for the sport burning through adolescence. Hopes for a job in Dubai replace the passion for carrom as Surya grows into a young man. Duped by a bogus overseas employment agency, Surya loses all his hard earned money he had saved for going to Dubai. Surya is forced to cross paths with Jaleel.
Since the 70's when the settlements in the ghetto began, Jaleel had acquired a strong hold in the area. He had his hands in every illicit activity since then. Feeding on the weaknesses of people, Jaleel was the self-proclaimed king of Malwani. Reintroduced to carrom by his childhood friend Zaid, this time to the hustling scene, Surya starts playing again. Being gypped of his hand earned money by the same man who had caused misery for many families; Surya decides to take on Jaleel on his turf. His patience and cool attitude are Surya's biggest strengths. But life has its own ways of testing it.
Box office
The film fared very poorly at the Indian box office. Though it was given only a one week theatrical run, it garnered critical acclaim. However, being the first film in history to premiere the same day on youtube, the film garnered over 800,000 views in the first 2 weeks. Estimated profits from this are said to be over USD 1mn.
Theatrical poster- Chandan Arora
- Sunita Rajwar
- Siddharth
- Padmapriya
- Aditya Pancholi
- Ankur Vikal
- Anupam Kher
- Seema Biswas
- Indian Films
- Makefilms
