‘One in a Billion’
Documentary
Director: Roman Gackowski
Cast: Satnam Singh Bhamara, Dan Barto, Balbir Singh Bhamara
Rating: 
In a country that worships cricket there’s not much hope for a basketball player … or so we thought – until Satnam Singh Bhamara appeared on the scene. At age 14 he was already 6 ft plus and the cynosure of every sports coach in his native Ludhiana. The son of a humble farmer, he was advised to enroll for football before the local basketball association thought him more suitable to the basketball court.
Satnam Singh Bhamara is an unsung hero and hardly well known in an India obsessed with all things cricket. Though he’s only reached the ripening age of 21, and 7’2” in height now, Satnam Singh Bhamara’s journey to the top echelons of International basketball finds cinematic credence in New York Emmy award winner Roman Gackowski’s stirring feature-length documentary called ‘One in a Billion’. How the young village lad from India who faced unheard of hurdles (like finding a shoe that fits his size 18 foot) to play basketball, gets inducted into IMG’s Indian Basketball team selected by Troy Justice, supported by Reliance, moves to the USA as part of a team of young hopefuls given a scholarship, enrolled in the IMG Academy in Florida alongside 8 other select Indians, several years later signed-up with an agent and then becomes one among the 52 basketball protégés selected for the NBA’s new gen teams.
The film takes into account Satnam’s move to the USA, his linguistic makeover and his turning out as a super fit, educated young man with the most coveted hands in basketball. Satnam’s path of glory that started from Ballo Ke, a farming village in Punjab and took him to the unprecedented high of being the first in a billion Indians to be drafted into the USA’s most coveted National Basketball Association, is truly inspirational.
Gackowski’s film takes us through every sporting highlight of Satnam’s young life while leading up to the suspenseful moment when the NBA’s final 52 cut-off is being announced. It’s an interesting, engaging and thoroughly invigorating portrait of a persevering young man who achieves the most coveted pinnacle of his young sporting career with humility and unstinting grit. Largely in English and with captions setting the tone of every segment, the director’s intent of going with the Punjabi (minus subtitles) in the scenes depicting Satnam revisiting his old haunts and rekindling old relationships, may be a hurdle for those unfamiliar with the language. The director sets the narrative in the form of a thriller taking us all the way to a down-to-the-wire moment and it works. Notwithstanding that minor hiccup over language preferences, this documentary is fulsomely appealing and is sure to hold you in thrall!
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