Dangal was fantastic. Yes it had the classic cheesiness of Indian film and in the first half of the film I already realized how it was going to end (which is fine in my view, Indian films do not try to hide the ending of films as much as it is done in Western media) but it was utterly fantastic.

The whole idea of Indian sport drama's is to tell an underdog story, rising against a culture traditionally hostile to doing sports and against a government so utterly corrupt that people cannot truly pursue it. Therefore, people succeed because of their own determination and will. This film took that basic theme and inserted several interesting ideas. Not only are the protagonists fighting the government lack of infrastructure, they are fighting the sexist culture in much of rural India. It incorporated Indian ideals of child rearing and family, specifically the idea that a.) hard work should be prioritized above all else and b.) advice given through family and familial relations trump new-fangled technology and pure money.

And it combined those ideals to bring up an interesting point, if Indian society wants to encourage hard work and strict parenting, then they must apply those ideals to females as well as males, force them to work hard to succeed instead of encourage them to do chores and simply be married off. The way this was delivered most powerfully was predictable but still very good.

Spoilers beyond this point:

The nationalistic aspect of an Indian sports drama was done extremely well. I cried at the end and the father, who was locked in a cabinet and who could not see his daughter, learned his daughter won by hearing the Indian national anthem play. It was such a beautiful scene. At times the nationalism was a bit much (was making the Australian racist really necessary?) but it was overall very well done.

So many hilarious jokes for people who get the culture, an Aamir Khan film made fun of Shah Rukh Khan (spoilers: Essentially Shah Rukh Khan's films have all become stupid sappy love stories. Every single one tries to criticize the Indian view of marriage in the process, but fails to. This move made fun of that by having the girl's wrestling team swoon over every little thing the girl does in one of SRK's films), having to wait ten years for your father to say I am proud of you, etc ... Also, the vegetarian joke was a nice touch.

Aamir Khan acted brilliantly. You really got the sense of a man who was steadfast and stoic in his pursuits to reach his goal of having his daughters win a medal and pushing them though very difficult tasks, willing to give punishment if necessary, but also someone who deeply cares for his daughters. There was an excellent scene where he reveals to organizers for the Indian team that he kept with all the money laminated that the girls won in competitions. He had the quit his job to continue the girls training and yet he never spent the money they earned, for they had much greater value in symbolizing accomplishment than as 50 to 100 rupee notes.

It was, like many of Aamir Khan's films, a useful social criticism and very well told. It was an excellent film and I encourage everyone to watch it. My favorite of all films this year.

Edit: one other thing I love about Indian film, it is not realistic and more importantly no one cares. Even with very serious topics you can have fun. For example, the movie pk was about an alien who came to earth and was curious about religon. That is a ridiculous plotline, it worked because no one really cares. It moved the story forward and allowed the director to be whimsical and tell a hilarious story. People have fun. They don't mind being cliche and cheesy or predictable. But at the same time, there are serious dramas with complex ideals that invoke heavy emotion. I love the way those ideals and emotion is expressed those a very casual tone.