Like Deepa Gahlot says in her review, "If just production design made a film, Chandan Arora's Striker would have been a winner". Given Hindi cinema's almost complete ignorance of the diversity of cultures (except to serve up one-note caricatures) in their faceless mishmash, it's refreshing to find a film that explores the specific mores of a community / time-frame. I'm a sucker for this kind of detailing (the only Madhur Bhandarkar film I didn't feel a total waste of time was his 1980's-era set Chandni Bar) and despite Striker's several (and I mean several) falterings I can't ignore my fondness towards its meticulous atmosphere.

In the Malvani locality (which started off as a fishing village) of Mumbai, brothers Chandra and Surya grow up in a poor but well-knit family (nice to see talented character actor Rajendra Gupta after a while, even if he and Seema Biswas are not the most suitable choices for a Maharashtrian couple). Chandra's a polished carrom player, but an altercation with the local don Jaleel (Aditya Pancholi relishing a role that fits him like a glove) forces him to lay off the game and put his nose full-time to the daily grind. Kid brother Surya (Siddharth) picks up the game thereon. Surya as a young man works as "carrier" for the city's jewelers and dreams of joining the throng of Indian fortune seekers in the Gulf, but his dreams are foiled by con men working for Jaleel. In a bid to recover his money the quick-tempered Surya is drawn into the underground carrom betting scene (don't know how big this concept really is, but it does seem plausible in the film's context). The various turns that Surya's life takes after he gets into this form the rest of the film's plot (which does not have a carrom match as its finale).

Like I said earlier, the look of the film is its biggest selling point - Every setting has a distinct identity and sits as part of a cohesive whole. The soundscape too, when the nondescript songs aren't playing, is very well engineered and, given that carrom is not a visually exciting game, does a lot to raise the immersion factor in the scenes of the carrom matches.

The character of Zaid, Surya's best friend and Jaleel's errand boy, is a very Raghubir Yadav kind of role but actor Ankur Vikal performs with an ease that wipes away the deja vu. Vidya Malavade as Surya's sister is also effective in her brief role. The story had potential but falters in many parts. Surya's romantic dalliance with a Muslim neighbor mistakes tepidness for subtlety. The inclusion of the 1992 riots into the film's structure is abrupt and clumsy, and Anupam Kher as an honest cop is given another walk-on role. And while you probably cannot expect characters living in impoverished ill-educated circumstances to have the same set of values that you have, the film's attitude towards rape is as perverse as that 80's Jeetendra wtf-er Dharmadhikari, where it's alright to rape a woman so long as you marry her afterwards.

So ya, a varied experience. I personally found it worth my while to see this one. If you are not so taken in by the film's distinctive look, deduct half a star from the rating.