‘Net Flicks’ chronicles forgotten badminton stars

Badminton fans know all the titbits about the life and career of current Indian superstars like two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and the trailblazer of women’s badminton, Saina Nehwal, whose bronze medal win at the London Olympics in 2012 started a mini revolution of sorts in the country. But not much is known about the countless badminton stars, including Prakash Nath and Nandu Natekar, who toiled hard to make the sport first survive in the pre-Partition times, and then helped it prosper in the Fifties and Sixties, to make it one of the most watched Olympic sports in India now.

‘Net Flicks’, co-authored by Akshay and Vijay Lokapally, is an attempt to piece together the early rise of the sport in India that mostly flourished due to the love of many individuals, or in the numerous mud courts of gymkhanas across the country.

Some stories are intertwined with poignant moments of Independent India, like the Partition. India’s first ever finalist in the prestigious All-England Open Badminton Championships, Prakash Nath, was shocked to know a day before his big match against Denmark’s Conny Jepsen that his city Lahore “was in flames”. Similarly, the co-authors describe a fascinating story about how Prakash Nath and Devinder Mohan flipped a coin to decide the quarterfinal tie between them to conserve their energy before the semifinal of the same tournament. The trauma and anxiety about the well-being of his family affected Nath and he lost to Jepsen, never to play the game again.

The story about the late Nandu Natekar is equally riveting. Seth Ram Narain Ruia possibly started the first crowdfunding venture to help him compete at the All-England Championships in 1951. Did you know that the average weight of a badminton racquet in those early years would be between 140 and 150 gms? Natekar, the first Indian to win an international title, we are told, was equally adept at playing tennis. He played and lost the National tennis tournament final against tennis great Ramanathan Krishnan in 1951. His matches against multiple National title winner Trilok Nath Seth would draw crowds in hordes. In Guwahati, the fans pelted stones, forcing the organisers to open the gates for them to get inside the venue to watch the duel between them.

Damyanti Tambay, wife of Flt Lt Vijay Tambay, whose aircraft was shot down in the 1971 war, narrates how she struck up a wonderful friendship with the late Judy Hashman, who won 17 All-England titles. She still possesses Judy’s 1966 gold medal.

The chapter on India’s first All-England champion Prakash Padukone shows a different aspect of the biggest star of the era. Padukone followed Indonesian superstar Rudy Hartono to see his pre-match training routines and was shocked to see him do over 1,000 skips before hitting the training. Padukone would finish his full shift, having been employed as a probationary officer with the Union Bank, even though he was allowed to leave for training at 3 pm. This trait is surely lost in today’s superstars.

Slain star Syed Modi, Ameeta Kulkarni, the first Indian to win the Asia Badminton title Dinesh Khanna, Aparna Popat, Pullela Gopichand and modern stars Saina and Sindhu, too, have chapters in this well-researched book. A good read, it preserves the history if one is interested in knowing about our past stars.