Goonga Pehelwan

Purpose of the film 
The film is a biopic documentary of Virender’s life and through the film the filmmakers have tried to raise two major issues plaguing the Indian sporting bureaucracy in the realm of the differently abled sports and the democratizing of the sporting system in India. These issues are: -

• Lack of access to equal opportunities for the differently abled - The differently abled athletes are not considered a part of the larger sporting fraternity that should be granted equal access to sporting facilities and competitions thereby making it impossible for them to compete with able bodied athletes. In Virender’s case, this issue presents itself whenever he tries to compete with able bodied wrestlers and because of his inability to hear the whistle he is ejected from national competitions thereby rendering his Olympic dream impossible even though the International wrestling body FILA and the International Olympic Committee allow deaf wrestlers to participate in able bodied competitions and also the Olympics with the help of visual and tactile cues. 

• Unequal, ad-hoc and meager cash rewards, incentives and govt. awards – The Central Sports policy has no specific policy for rewarding the disabled athletes. Incidentally the only place that they find mention is in the negative list of the ‘ Scheme of Special Awards to Medal Winners in International Sports Events and their Coaches’ that essentially renders them ineligible to receive anything from the government for bringing laurels for the country. Even government awards are difficult to come by and athletes languish in anonymity and because of no real avenues for cash rewards sustenance becomes difficult in most cases as is true in Virender’s case.