A Catholic priest in Odisha hopes to achieve his childhood dream of playing hockey for India. He now trains women to become the country’s future hockey team and his main supporter is his bishop.
“I always wanted to become a member of India’s A team, stay in a sport hostel and play for my nation. But God willed otherwise,” Father Rajendra Kumar Kujur of Sambalpur Catholic diocese told Matters India. A documentary film “The Mountain Hockey” made on the priest’s resolves and love for the games was released a few months ago on OTT platforms such as Disney Hotstar, MX Player, Fearless, Amazon Prime Video and DcuBay in more than 170 countries.
The Odia language film, directed by Avinash Pradhan and Debasish Mohapatra, gives a glimpse of the cradle of Indian hockey by focusing Amlikha-man, a small village surrounded by mountains in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.
The inspirational figure in the film is Father Kujur, who is currently the headmaster of Upper Primary Mission School in Amlikhaman, some 90 km northeast of Sambalpur.
Fr Kujur’s dram soared high when hockey and Odisha drew national attention when the Indian women team reached Olympics semi-final. All of them were trained in the eastern Indian state.
Now the 46-year-old priest wants his women to win the gold in future. Fr Kujur training students Along with studies, his school provides hockey training to the students, especially girls with coach Dominic Toppo another hockey enthusiast who could not make it to the top because of lack of guidance and opportunities in childhood.