London, Aug 31: Spurred by the success of the Oscar-nominated Bollywood film `Lagaan`, a British producer has used the cricket theme to produce a four-million pounds film `Wondrous Oblivion`. The film, which is set in the 1960s, revolves around an 11-year-old Jewish boy, growing up in a drab London suburb, who loves cricket but is no good at the game.

He has to settle for operating the scoreboard at his private school and tending his formidable collection of cigarette cards, until a Jamaican immigrant, played by Hollywood actor Delroy Lindo, moves in next door and sets up a cricket net in the back garden.

Two of the game`s all-time greats, the West Indians Sir Garry Sobers and Sir Frank Worrell, are portrayed in the film by actors, and another former West Indies player, Phil Simmons, acted as the technical adviser, coaching the cast.

There is even a portrayal of the most famous of all the victorian cricketers, W G Grace, who springs to life from a cigarette card.
For cricket buffs of a certain age, the film offers a nostalgic return to the days of long white shorts, batting gloves with green spikes and boots that had to be painted with whitener.

`Wondrous Oblivion` has already gone down well with audiences ahead of its British opening on November 7, winning the main prize at the recent Giffoni Film Festival in Italy.

Producer Johnny Persey, however, insists that it is "not exactly a cricket film", more a feel-good coming-of-age story which uses the game as a backdrop to deal with racial issues and the shift from the narrow-mindedness of the 1950s to the freedom of the 1960s.

"Clearly it has an attraction to the cricket lover, but not a single ball is bowled on the screen that doesn`t tell you about the characters` journeys. This is only a cricket movie to the extent that Billy Elliott was a ballet movie," he told `The Sunday Telegraph`.

Paul Morrison, the film`s writer-director, agreed: "the film is not about cricket, but it`s a good metaphor."

Morrison, a psychotherapist and former television director whose first film, the Welsh drama `Solomon and Gaenor`, was nominated for an Oscar, added that he was not even a cricket fan himself, although he had a fondness for the "accoutrements" of the game - the bats, gloves and pads.

The film`s star is Sam Smith, 13, a seasoned child actor who has appeared as Oliver Twist in a BBC production. He had barely played the game and had never been to a match, but after undergoing a crash course from Phil Simmons, he announced, "it`s more like rocket science than a sport”.
Oscar nominated `Lagaan` was about a cricket match between Indian villagers and officers of the British Raj. No western producer in living memory has, however, taken the risk of building a whole film around the game.

Bureau Report