Dangal vs Sultan: 5 reasons Aamir's film looks better than Salman's, hands down

Same themes do not make the same film. Somehow, two of Bollywood's biggest releases of 2016 are based on the world of wrestling or kushti. While Salman Khan's Sultan was the bombastic fictional tale of a fallen Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Sultan Ali Khan, Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal is based on the real story of Dronacharya Award nominee Mahavir Singh Phogat who trained his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari to become champion wrestlers.

On the one hand, where Aamir Khan is known for sensible, cerebral, challenging cinema, Salman Khan is known for his masala blockbusters. As such, it is understandable that both films will be vastly different. By the looks of Dangal's trailer which released today (October 20), Aamir Khan's film seems like it is the better movie.

Here are five reasons why Aamir Khan's Dangal looks better than Salman Khan's Sultan...

1. More screen time to women

Salman Khan's Sultan was a one-man show where it was Salman, Salman and Salman throughout the film with Anushka Sharma's Aarfa playing second fiddle to her husband Sultan Ali Khan. However, Dangal is predominantly the story of women and more importantly, women empowerment. Mahavir Singh Phogat's (Aamir Khan) daughters Geeta Phogat (Fatima Sana Sheikh) and Babita Kumari (Sanya Malhotra) get equal to, if not more than Aamir's screentime, in Dangal's trailer itself.

2. Dangal, A truly feminist film

In Sultan, Aarfa (Anushka Sharma) who has trained all her life to wrestle for India at the Olympics miraculously gives up wrestling forever to take care of his husband Sultan (Salman) and their unborn child. In Dangal, however, no such thing happens. Aamir's Mahavir is a determined person who wants to make sure his daughters Geeta and Babita bring gold home to India. The real-life Mahavir had to ward off societal pressure and stigma as he was constantly criticised for letting his daughters fight in the mud. In a country where gender ratio is so skewed, a film like Dangal is very important.

3. More realistic than Sultan

Probably it is only Salman who makes the plot of Sultan believable, but otherwise, its story is ridiculous. Sultan wants to learn wrestling as he believes only a wrestler can win the heart of a wrestler and his crush is on Aarfa, a wrestler. When Aarfa rejects Sultan, Sultan literally learns wrestling like a boss in a month and within a matter of fifteen minutes in the film, he becomes an Olympic gold medalist. On top of that, Aarfa is shown wearing clips in the film while she is wrestling, which is factually incorrect; female wrestlers have closely cropped hair like Geeta's and Babita's in Dangal (see the trailer). The film is expected to focus on the training of the two girls which took place over decades, not a matter of minutes.

4. Aamir's Haryanvi accent is spot-on while Salman's, is well...

Aamir Khan is a perfectionist extraordinaire. Salman, on the other hand, is a mad bull. Granted, Sultan is Salman's best work in years, his Haryanvi accent looked silly and childish in front of Govind , played by Anant Sharma whose Haryanvi accent is pure gold. However, in the Dangal trailer, even though we do not hear much of Aamir's dialogues (it is, after all, a trailer), one thing is for sure: Aamir has nailed both the look of a wrestler and that thick desi accent needed to play Mahavir with conviction.

5. Nitesh Tiwari, Dangal's director has a National Award, while Sultan's director made Gunday

Ali Abbas Zafar, the director of Sultan has Gunday and Mere Brother Ki Dultan in his credits. On the other hand, Nitesh Tiwari has made the 2011 children's film Chillar Party which won the National Award for Best Children's Film. He also directed Bhoothnath Returns. Nitesh's wife Ashwini Iyer Tiwari directed the 2016 comedy drama Nil Battey Sannata. So, on one hand, you have apples and on the other, you have oranges.