A Mumbai-based filmmaker's critically acclaimed documentary hails the men and women who have embraced ice hockey in India despite the odds stacked against them
Kunzes Angmo, assistant captain, Indian women's ice hockey
One of the opening sequences in Fighting on Ice begins with a montage of reactions to India's ice hockey scene. The respondents vary in age and gender, but the response remains uniform - most of them didn't know that the sport is played in India; let alone the fact that the country boasts men's and women's national hockey teams. Despite this apathy - not limited to the layman alone - men and women in the Himalayan region of Ladakh have embraced ice hockey at a professional level, even if that means having to pass the puck on a frozen lake, instead of a well-defined rink.
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Players in Ladakh practise on frozen lakes
"When I read about how popular ice hockey is in Ladakh, I was keen on finding out who these players were, where they played, and who coached them. After six months of research, which began in June 2016, I started filming Fighting on Ice in January 2017," says Mumbai-based filmmaker Mithun Bajaj about his 35-minute documentary, which travelled to international festivals in Russia, Israel, New Zealand, Italy and other European countries in 2018, before its India premiere at the Ahmedabad International Children's Film Festival earlier this month.
Indian men's hockey team members
The documentary is shot across three countries. Bajaj started with Ladakh; its frozen lakes in the winter months lend themselves perfectly as natural rinks for the sport. "In fact, it was during the 1970s when a battalion of the Indian Army posted in the region started playing ice hockey for the first time," he informs.
In 1989, the Ice Hockey Association of India was granted membership to the International Ice Hockey Federation. But despite the approval, it took India another 20 years to hit the ice as a national team. That was still a decade ago, and yet, there are no artificial rinks in the region to ensure players can continue their practice all year round. "Come summer and the players, who come from all walks of life, return to college or their day jobs. Or, as is the case with some women players, return to conducting roller skating classes for kids," Bajaj explains.
But despite the odds, the love these feisty men and women have for the sport shines through in the documentary. Which is what took Bajaj to Thailand to cover the Indian women's team's journey at the 2017 IIHF Women's Challenge Cup of Asia, where they came fourth, despite the looming threat of finishing last. In April 2017, it was the men's team's turn to show their prowess at the Challenger Cup of Asia in Kuwait, where they secured a podium finish.
Mithun Bajaj
In a country where most sports survive in a system not known to be highly supportive, ice hockey is no exception. And to put that in perspective, the documentary features a conversation with Shiva Keshavan, a six- time Olympian and the first Indian representative to compete in luge at the Winter Olympic Games. "In India, it is often the sports ministry that bears the brunt of all the flak. But there are several bodies like the Sports Authority of India, the Indian Olympic Association, and national sports federations. And they all need to work in synergy to administer and develop a sport," he says.
But until then, there are alternative measures like crowd-funding, which helped the Ice Hockey Association of India to gather more funds to send the women's team to Bangkok, and have both the national teams attend a training camp in Kyrgyzstan, which helped them immensely in the two international tournaments. And there is Bajaj's documentary, which after its Mumbai premiere in March, and a television broadcast later this year, hopes to take this sport nurtured in the lap of the Himalayas to the rest of the country.
ON: March 14, 7 pm, St Andrew's Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts, Bandra West; March 15, 7 pm, Si Bambai, Kalaghoda.
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