The trailer of A1 Express was released on Tuesday on the occasion of India’s 72nd Republic Day celebrations. And the timing of the trailer launch couldn’t be better given that the film deals with the issue of corruption in our national sport, hockey.

The trailer opens with the chants of vande mataram, followed by quick visuals of formation of independent India and the country lifting its first and only hockey world cup. And cut to the present day, we’re quickly reminded of the state of our national sport. Negligence and rampant corruption has deprived this sport of funding and eyeballs.

Rao Ramesh’s character sarcastically remarks that the majority of people in the country still think Shah Rukh Khan is the coach of the Indian hockey team. He is referring to Chak De! India.

Enter, Sundeep Kishan. He is a top hockey player with an urge to revolutionize the game by taking on the corny capitalists who control the fate of hockey.

Director Dennis Jeevan Kanukolanu, however, seems to have followed a typical template of a commercial entertainer to narrate this tale. Sundeep’s character has to deal with a separate romantic track, dance to fancy and groovy musical numbers when he is not leading the protest to uplift the sport that he loves so much.

The film has a huge supporting cast, including Lavanya Tripathi, Murali Sharma, Rao Ramesh, Posani Krishna Murali, Priyadarshi Pulikonda, Abhijeeth Poondla, Raghu Babu, Sriranjini and Satya.

A1 Express is due in cinemas in February.