Aging, Sports and Visual Texts: Gerontological Ethos in Akshay Roy’s Vijay 69

Although researchers belonging to disciplines like sports science, leisure studies and exercise psychology have conducted extensive studies on the critical engagement between sports and aging, there is still a scarcity of critical theorization of the interconnections between sports fiction and gerontological studies. It was only in the last decade that academic discourse on the latter arrested much scholarly attention, as critics gradually started to analyze representations of (old)age/master athletes within the ambit of sports fiction (mainly visual narratives). Aligning itself with this theoretical development, the paper tries to chart out the incremental growth of academic scholarship in sports and gerontology across the globe, and then, seeks to examine the Bollywood movie, Vijay 69, directed by Akshay Roy, in light of aging studies. The movie tells the story of an eponymous sexagenarian hero, enacted by Anupam Kher, who displays a unique spectacle of sportsmanship and athleticism, participating in a triathlon at the age of 69. The main purpose of the paper is to investigate how the movie captures the experience and conceptualization of old age, and also emerges as a counter narrative to the ageist perception that acts as the dominant force in the arena of sports.