Beyond All Boundaries

Beyond All Boundaries story line

It is the spring of 2011 and the World Cup of Cricket is being held in India. On every street corner and in every village, children play cricket. The country’s obsession with the sport is unparalleled and it is the only thing that transcends India’s deep divisions of language, religion, region, class, and caste.

For almost half a year, we followed three Indians, for each of whom the sport of cricket is a lifeline. In the struggle and triumph that make up their journeys, we get glimpses of the hope and despair that characterize life in modern India.

– Sudhir Kumar – a 30 year-old superfan who for the past ten years has attended every India home game – makes it to matches often by cycling a thousand kilometers.He has one dream – for India to win the World Cup after a 28-year drought. We travel thousands of miles with Sudhir as he bikes and travels ticketless on trains from match to match, and finally to his home in the rural heartland of Bihar. During the journeys we begin to see what ultimately drives the man who has sworn never to marry, and to cheer Team India until his dying day.

– Prithvi Shaw – a twelve-year old boy from a humble background– is breaking several long-standing Mumbai school records in batting. Coaches, players, and even local politicians speak about him in hushed tones, convinced he is the next Indian cricket superstar. His mother died when he was three, and his unemployed father has great ambitions for him. We see how Prithvi copes with the weight of expectations thrust upon him.

– In a world dominated by boys and men, a group of girls dressed in cricket whites practice hard every day in one corner of Mumbai’s famous Shivaji Park. A standout among them, Akshaya Surve, bowls with the fierceness of a professional cricketer.
She shares a small room in a Mumbai slum with her mother. We follow her as she prepares for and takes part in the selections/tryouts – her last chance of breaking in to cricket and having a future beyond the slum.