The Southhall United Soccer Club, made up mostly of minorities has been losing for over twenty years. They have had some moments of glory in their past, but now the town wants to plow the soccer complex under and make a shopping mall.
Sunny, goes out and gets one of the players from the glory years, Tony Singh, to coach the team. Tony is reluctant at first but tries to get the sorry looking team in shape. They slowly begin to get it together. the team needs to win 30 matches to get in to the championship and win the money to save the club. Tony tries to get Sunny Bhasin, an Indian, who plays for the Aston club to play for Southall but Sunny thinks they are a joke.
While Sunny is definitely good enough to play, racism and jealousy hurt his position with Aston. Sunny's dad, who was a star at Southall years ago, wants him to play for his old club. He doesn't like or trust the English. His dad was right, Sunny gets cut because of his color. Tony then gets Sunny to join Southall.
Tony and the team don't play well together. Tony hogs the ball and the team won't pass to him. When Astor beats them, Tony takes the team to the home field of Manchester United, where real champions play. After an inspirational speech about what it takes to be a champion, the team starts to work : together.
After they win a game the Bollywood dancing and singing breaks out at the post-game party. It reminds me of some of the Hollywood movies from the thirties. As they continue winning the dancing and singing get wilder.
Tony then tells the team about an incident from his playing days with Southall when racists had threatened that if he played in the championship game his family would be hurt. He ran away on the day of the finals.
Afraid that Southall is going to win and stop the shopping mall, the Melbourne Club buys him off to be on their team. They players are mad, they say that this is about their identity; about who they are; about their color. They feel Sunny has betrayed them.
The season comes down to the final game against Astor to win the championship. Sunny's father, girlfriend and friends are all abandoning him for being a traitor. In the pregame speech Tony tells the players that they are playing for their countries : India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Of course, in this most predictable movie, just as the game is about to begin Sunny drives to the stadium, jumps out of his car and runs out on to the field. Sunny is deliberately injured by the other team but still leads the team to victory, spurred on by seeing his father in the stands.
Like many Bollywood movies the music intrudes on almost scene and at 167 minutes it was really, really long. At some points it seemed if they were stretching the movie out on purpose. But, the movie does have some very interesting things to say about racism, and shows the bitterness that some Indians still feel today towards the English.
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