The most disappointing thing about Pele: Birth of a Legend is its failure to bring alive a fascinating story that has layers of historic, cultural and sporting significance.
The film’s tagline refers to not only the arrival of one of the greatest footballers in the history of the game, but also the introduction of an ancient, ridiculed-by-the-Western-world, indigenous form of martial arts-meets-dance athleticism practised by African slaves in Latin America in a game dominated by whites.
The problem with Pele is not the fact that it doesn’t understand the big picture of its subject — directors Jeff and Michael Zimbalist who have worked in non-fiction films about Brazil, are grounded in the realities of the country. They know too well that the story of Pele is best looked through a socio-cultural lens. The film begins with Brazil’s notorious night of heartbreak at the Maracana stadium, where the country, from leading position, lost to an unassuming Uruguay at the 1950 World Cup that they hosted and began as hot favourites.
We see Pele as a little boy, at the time called Dico (Leonardo Lima Carvalho), watching his father hide his face in despair and disappointment as the match ends, taking a quiet oath to bring the cup back to Brazil.
This is a big, gooseflesh-worthy moment that is supposed to set the tone of the film, but the Zimbalists are off the mark right from the beginning.
The kids, Dico accompanied by a number of his friends, overact till the characters grow up and are replaced by better actors. The film puts a halo around Dico like he is a child prodigy overlooking any scope for human complexity.
Maybe the latter is a quality we oughtn’t to expect from a broad, Hollywoodised version of a Brazilian story. But unlike in a well etched-out Hollywood biopic, moments like these don’t have the emotional ring. And this is a recurring problem.
A number of potentially exciting scenes lack the desired dramatic bite — take the scenes that depict Dondinho (Pele’s father, mentor and trainer played by Brazilian superstar Seu Jorge) working as a janitor in a hospital, training his son in the backyard of the building with the help of mangoes. It is ironical that this film makes you wonder what it could have been had it been made with the sensibilities of City of God , Jorge’s breakthrough film that too had a protagonist who began his journey in the slums of Brazil.