Movie
– Hansie: A True Story
Directed
by – Regardt van der Bergh
Genre – Family, Sport
Wessel Johannes Cronjé
was a good fielder, a handy bowler, an average batman (which he more than made
up for by sheer grit).. but, head & shoulders above all his other
cricketing credentials, he was the consummate leader. Thorough, charismatic
& inspirational, Hansie (essayed in the movie by the square-jawed Frank
Rautenbach) was the most revered youth icon & a household name in South
Africa right through his six years at the helm of the national cricket team. Cronjé,
then Coach Bob Woolmer (played by Nick Lorentz) & then Chief Selector Peter
Pollock (played by David Sherwood) took the prodigal Proteas from being a bunch
of unsure, recently Apartheid-returned cricketers to almost becoming World
Champions.
The curse of a
movie about a deceased much-loved-hero-turned-anti-hero is that whenever there
is someone from the immediate family behind it, one invariably tends to
question the authenticity of its truth-telling abilities, for personal bias is
an ever-present threat. ‘Hansie’ is not only produced but also written by elder
brother Frans Cronjé, & it is therefore perhaps unsurprising in its
treatment of the disgraced captain as more of a victim of Indian bookies’
persistent pursuit than a willing participant. Also, Hansie being mostly a
private man, his interactions with wife Bertha Cronjé (played by the very
pretty Sarah Thompson, whom some of us may remember as Ranbir Kapoor’s firang girlfriend in ‘Rajneeti’), brother,
father, Peter Pollock, Dr. Ali Bacher (played by Andre Jacobs) & others as
depicted in the movie are something that only writer-producer Frans could’ve
had access to. He has used many such
moments, and how! Hansie is portrayed as a Christ-fearing man who suffered
great internal strife, right from when the bookies established contact to his
fall from grace to his retreat into depression to his attempt at redemption
& decision to board that fateful airplane. And when the disturbed, brooding
Hansie, stripped of his captaincy, shorn of his nation’s respect & banned from
cricket for life, confesses to his wife “I had the world at my feet, & I
threw it all away..”, you cannot help but remember the bold newspaper headlines
of the day - ‘Why, Hansie?’.
For the most part,
though, the movie sticks to acknowledged facts. On the one side, there is Cronjé’s
unprecedented rise in the cricketing ranks, his & Woolmer’s uncompromising
stand on fielding standards, his insistence on selecting players on merit
regardless of the colour of their skin, the heartbreak in the ’99 World Cup
Semi-Final. On the other side is the temptation of the bookies’ ever-increasing
offers, the fact that one was actually discussed by the entire team before
being turned down, his implication by the King’s commission. Hansie’s “I haven’t
been completely honest with you..” & Judge King’s “..the truth shall set
you free.” are also present, as is the most widely circulated picture during
the enquiry – that of a stone-faced Hansie, eyes downcast, his chin on the palm
of his right hand. Towards the closing stages of the movie, he says that the
old Hansie must die for him to start afresh; the old Hansie did indeed die on Cradock
Peak on that 1st of June, but the new Hansie never came back to us.
As the credits
roll, photographs of Hansie at various stages of his life serve as the
backdrop. The talented boy, the young skipper, the family man. In each of the
photographs, that trademark wide Cronjé smile plays on his lips. And, for a
moment, one might be lulled into believing that all is once again right with
the gentleman’s game..
