Hansie - Movie Review

Wessel Johannes Cronjé was a good fielder, a handy bowler, an average batman (which he more than made up for by sheer grit) – but, head & shoulders above all his other cricketing credentials, he was the consummate leader. Thorough, charismatic & inspirational, Hansie (essayed in the movie by the square-jawed Frank Rautenbach) was the most revered youth icon & a household name in South Africa right through his six years at the helm of the national cricket team. Cronjé, then Coach Bob Woolmer (played by Nick Lorentz) & then Chief Selector Peter Pollock (played by David Sherwood) took the prodigal Proteas from being a bunch of unsure, recently Apartheid-returned cricketers to almost becoming World Champions.

The curse of a movie about a deceased much-loved-hero-turned-anti-hero is that whenever there is someone from the immediate family behind it, one invariably tends to question the authenticity of its truth-telling abilities, for personal bias is an ever-present threat. Hansie is not only produced but also written by elder brother Frans Cronjé, & it is therefore perhaps unsurprising in its treatment of the disgraced captain as more of a victim of Indian bookies’ persistent pursuit than a willing participant. Also, Hansie being mostly a private man, his interactions with wife Bertha Cronjé (played by the very pretty Sarah Thompson, whom some of us may remember as Ranbir Kapoor’s firang girlfriend in Rajneeti), brother, father, Peter Pollock, Dr. Ali Bacher (played by Andre Jacobs) & others as depicted in the movie are something that only writer-producer Frans could’ve had access to.  He has used many such moments, and how! Hansie is portrayed as a Christ-fearing man who suffered great internal strife, right from when the bookies established contact to his fall from grace to his retreat into depression to his attempt at redemption & decision to board that fateful airplane. And when the disturbed, brooding Hansie, stripped of his captaincy, shorn of his nation’s respect & banned from cricket for life, confesses to his wife “I had the world at my feet, & I threw it all away…”, you cannot help but remember the bold newspaper headlines of the day - ‘Why, Hansie?’.

For the most part, though, the movie sticks to acknowledged facts. On the one side, there is Cronjé’s unprecedented rise in the cricketing ranks, his & Woolmer’s uncompromising stand on fielding standards, his insistence on selecting players on merit regardless of the colour of their skin, the heartbreak in the ’99 World Cup Semi-Final. On the other side is the temptation of the bookies’ ever-increasing offers, the fact that one was actually discussed by the entire team before being turned down, his implication by the King’s commission. Hansie’s “I haven’t been completely honest with you…” & Judge King’s “…the truth shall set you free.” are also present, as is the most widely circulated picture during the enquiry – that of a stone-faced Hansie, eyes downcast, his chin on the palm of his right hand. Towards the closing stages of the movie, he says that the old Hansie must die for him to start afresh; the old Hansie did indeed die on Cradock Peak on that 1st of June, but the new Hansie never came back to us.

As the credits roll, photographs of Hansie at various stages of his life serve as the backdrop. The talented boy, the young skipper, the family man. In each of the photographs, that trademark wide Cronjé smile plays on his lips. And, for a moment, one might be lulled into believing that all is once again right with the gentleman’s game.