Story without words

Virender Singh, the deaf and mute wrestler with an impressive list of wins, is the hero of a documentary, 'Goonga Pehelwan'.

It is a busy evening at Delhi's Chhatrasaal Stadium. A football game is on and athletes are practising on the synthetic tracks along the pitch. In one corner, a group of wrestlers are doing push-ups and squats. Among them is Virender Singh, a 27-year-old hearing-and-speech-impaired wrestler with an impressive list of wins, both within the country and overseas. 

Known as Goonga Pehelwan (mute wrestler), Virender is now the subject of a forthcoming documentary film of the same name. The 40-minute biopic will be released in early August and is directed by Vivek Chaudhary, Mit Jani and Prateek Gupta of the production house Videowala. "We came across Virender's story in a newspaper in September last year, " says Chaudhary, one of the directors. "I went over to see him at the Chhatrasaal Stadium, and he seemed keen on the idea of a film."

Virender is the only deaf and mute grappler among the 150 wrestlers at Mahabali Satpal Akhara, which is housed within the stadium. Run by the 1982 Asian Games gold medallist-turned-coach Satpal Singh, it is arguably the country's most illustrious akhara, having spawned Olympic champions like Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt. 

Virender joined the akhara at the age of 10 when an uncle, employed with the CRPF, spotted his talent. In the years since, he has gone on to become one of the akhara's most distinguished students with a proud list of achievements: a gold medal at the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne in the 74-84 kg freestyle wrestling category, a silver at the World Deaf Wrestling Championships in 2008 in Yerevan in Armenia, a bronze at the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei, and a bronze at the 2012 World Deaf Wrestling Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

The film on Virender got off the ground in February this year, with the money coming from a non-governmental organisation, Drishti, which works to promote human rights through art and media. Shooting happened in three stretches between February and June. The first stretch of shooting was done at Chhatrasaal with Virender;the team then travelled to his village, Sasroli in Haryana. Although he has a job under the sports quota with the state-owned electricity transmission company, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited and earns a monthly stipend of Rs 17, 000, most of Virender's earnings come from dangals, or mud-wrestling tournaments. He fights wrestlers without disabilities and often wins prize money up to Rs 1 lakh. 

The filmmakers followed him as he fought these dangals through several villages in north India such as Kadma, Karuwara, Bir Chhuchhakwas, Godhri, Chandpur and Dholipalli in Haryana, and Kathumar near Bharatpur in Rajasthan. The rules are tweaked slightly when Virender is wrestling: instead of blowing the whistle, the referees usually touch Virender to point out a foul or inform him of the score. 

Virender's cousin, also a wrestler, helps him by playing the interpreter. As the filmmakers got more familiar with their subject, the wrestler began opening up, even talking about his relationships. "We got to know that the wrestlers from the akhara aren't allowed to meet or talk to girls, so we asked him about it, " says Chaudhary. Virender, he says, provided honest and fascinating insights into his life. 

The film's release in August is expected to not only highlight Virender's achievements but also push for his representation as a participant at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. That may be difficult given the stiff competition for the India berth at the Games, and the fact that wrestling now faces an uncertain future at the Olympics itself. But Chaudhary is hopeful. "There is a precedent where a deaf wrestler - Portugal's Hugo Passos - has participated in the Olympics. This was in the Athens Olympics in 2004, " he says. 

Virender, on his part, maintains a sense of equanimity about both the film and his shot at the Rio Games. He has something more pressing to deal with: the 2013 Summer Deafalympic Games to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria later this month - between July 26 and August 4. In his dormitory at the Chhatrasaal Stadium, a dingy, unkempt room where wrestlers sleep on the ground and live out of their suitcases, his interpreter says that he has lost 10kg and that this time he will be fighting in the 76kg category instead of his usual 84kg category. 

Virender fishes out a photograph of Turkish, Iranian and Bulgarian flags from an earlier championship taken on his cellphone, indicating they will be his main competitors this time too. He's working hard to get another gold, he indicates, holding his index finger up.