Prithipal Singh

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Bollywood to give hockey hero his due

Avijit Ghosh The Times of India Oct 23 2014 New Delhi:

Prithipal Had Scored 22 Goals In 3 Olympics

He was the deadliest penalty corner specialist of his generation. Prithipal Singh’s steely wrists slammed an astounding 22 goals helping India claim three Olympic medals: silver (Rome, 1960), gold (Tokyo, 1964) and bronze (Mexico City, 1968). Later, employed as deputy director for youth welfare in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, he was gunned down by his students in 1983.

Prithipal was first-hand witness to both triumph and tragedy in Indian hockey. In Rome, India lost for the first time in Olympics. Tokyo saw redemption. But Mexico City marked its lowest point where the team finished third. Strangely, the hockey federation had named two captains, Prithipal and fellow full-back Gurbux, thereby creating a negative environment in the team. “The movie also examines this controversial phase in Indian hockey,” says executive producer and co-screenplay writer Sandeep Mishra.

Among the finest exponents of short corner conversions produced by India, Prithipal fired home 10 penalty corners (some records show 11) in Tokyo. “Pargat Singh once told me that fans remember Surjit Singh, MP Singh and him as experts of the craft. But most have forgotten how deadly Prithipal was,” says Mishra, a sports journalist who has just completed a biography of Prithipal.

Former Olympian Charanjit Singh also admires his work as a defender. “He was a very dependable full-back,” says Charanjit, who captained India to gold in 1964.

Murderous campus politics

A post-graduate in agriculture, Prithipal worked for Punjab Police as well as Indian Railways. Later, he became deputy director for youth welfare in PAU, Ludhiana. “There were two warring groups of students in the campus.

Prithipal got dragged into the conflict and was shot by one group,” says Mishra. The death, he says, had nothing to do with militancy which had rocked Punjab in the 1980s. But it is possible to argue that the culture of violence that terrorism generated could have caused the campus bloodshed.

Biopic

A feature film based on his chequered life, “Prithipal Singh based on a true story”, was shot in 2014. “He is one of the heroes of Indian hockey. But even die hard fans have forgotten his contribution,” says his daughter Jaspreet Kaur.

“When we started working on the film, hardly any information on Prithipal Singh was available. We researched intensively, including talking to other Olympians of the time, to ferret out facts about his life. Telling an authentic story, without embellishing it, was the real challenge,” says debutant director Babita Puri, the first woman to direct a Bollywood sporting biopic.

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