Sachin: A Billion Dreams

James Erskine's 2017 film tells Sachin Tendulkar's life in a form between documentary and reconstruction. Tendulkar plays himself and the narration runs largely in his own voice. The strongest material is the family archive. Private recordings of his childhood and the early years of his career had not been seen before. How closely cricket is bound to national feeling in India, and how the matches of the nineties in particular set the country's mood, is covered in detail. The documentary's limit is that its subject is part of the production. Contested moments in the career and the effect of match-fixing investigations on the sport are passed over quickly. What emerges is an official account rather than a critical portrait. Who it's for: cricket followers and those curious about the social place of sport in India. Who it's not for: viewers expecting an independent, critical biography; the film was made with its subject's approval.