Review of 'Two Nations, One Obsession'

 

Harsha Bhogle has a knack for putting things in a way everyone would wish they could. In the first part of the documentary ‘Two Nations, One Obsession’, Bhogle elucidates what makes the Indo-Australian rivalry in cricket different from the one that India has had with Pakistan over the years. The history of wars with the arch-rivals, according to Bhogle, means that cricket against them is never just cricket for Team India. With Australia, however, it’s different. The intensity of the competition remains the same minus the baggage of history and that produces some of the finest cricketing action.

Bhogle is one of the several people trying to decode the obsession that both the countries have with the game and how that has clashed over the years in ‘Two Nations, One obsession’ which is now streaming on Discovery+ app. The task at the hand of the director Peter Dickson was not an easy one considering the rich history of this cricketing rivalry. However, by getting the duo of Harsha Bhogle and Mike Coward to tell the story from outside, Dickson sets it up perfectly. Just like Bhogle whose grasp on Australian culture is as firm as his on India’s, Coward’s grasp on the sub-continent helps one to understand the deep-rooted cultural differences that lie beneath the common passion for the game. The documentary is about both - the differences of cultures of the two nations and their almost identical  obsession over the game.

The story from the inside is told by a bevy of cricketers from both the countries. Apart from throwing light on what makes the cricket of these two countries so different in nature and so similar in intensity, the cricketers also narrate the tales from some of the classic contests between the two nations. Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar take the lead in telling the viewers what happened in the Tied Test of Madras in 1986 while Mohammad Kaif and Adam Gilchrist take us through Australia’s conquering of the ‘Final Frontier’ in 2004 under the latter’s captaincy. And, of course, if it’s about India-Australia cricketing rivalry, the tale of the 2001 Border Gavaskar Trophy can’t be not told.

The documentary also touches upon a few major controversies that have actually intensified the cricketing rivalry between the two countries in the past couple of decades. ‘Monkeygate’ gets talked about and so does Australian great Greg Chappell’s stint as an India coach where the man himself gets to present his version of the story. There is also a discussion on BCCI’s rise to power in the cricketing hierarchy aided by the popularity of the Indian Premier League and its impact on the power structure in the cricketing world. However, the treatment of both the retelling of the classic matches and the major controversies leaves a lot to be desired. The complex nature of the controversies means that just touching them at the surface level doesn’t entirely satisfy.

The show-stealer in the documentary, however, is the current Indian coach Ravi Shastri. Having toured Australia on several occasions as a cricketer and then as a broadcaster, Shastri has witnessed this rivalry warm-up from close quarters in the past four decades. And as one would expect from him, he doesn’t mince words when posed with tough questions. Asked about his thoughts on sledging, Shastri fires in a quick one – “I love it. It has improved my vocabulary”. Considering that this documentary was shot before India’s win in Australia in 2018-19, Shastri’s candour and confidence seem even more impressive.

In trying to talk about a cricketing rivalry that’s made up of so many events and individual battles, Dickson takes up a major challenge in Two Nations, One Obsession. And that’s why a lot does get left out in a documentary that’s more than 100 minutes long. We don’t hear at all about India-Australia 2003 World Cup final. We also don’t get to hear anyone talk about the Australian team’s behaviour with former BCCI supremo Sharad Pawar at the felicitation ceremony of 2006. The ‘Monkeygate’ was only part of the fiasco that was ‘Sydneygate’ where India were robbed of a win by some shambolic umpiring. None of it finds a mention in the documentary. Moreover, It would have also been nice to know about the change in relationships between Indian and Aussie cricketers brought about by the IPL which got Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh to share a dressing room. Dickson does shine a new light on classic tales though as we come to know of the frayed tempers on the last day of the Madras Test of 1986 which almost got Border sent off. We also get to see former Indian captain and now BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly showing the middle finger to a group of Aussie fans while celebrating India’s come from behind victory in the 2001 Border-Gavaksar Trophy. Then there’s the admission from Allan Border about ‘Monkeygate’ which makes one look at the entire fiasco through a different lens.

However, to talk of India-Australia cricketing rivalry in 2021 without discussing India’s recently concluded epic tour Down Under seems like telling an incomplete story. Although, that’s not something that director Dickson could have done much about since the documentary was being made three years before the series took place. But one can’t help but think that it does make the documentary feel slightly dated, especially since the viewers are still under the hangover of what arguably the most special India-Australia Test series.