Keep Eye on Ball: The Hashim Khan Story

• Watchlist

A mostly chronological look at the life, career, and celebrity of Hashim Kahn (c. 1916- ), the world's greatest squash player. At age eight, he picks up a racquet at a British outpost in Peshawar, quits school to play, barefoot, hours every day when the court is empty. In the early 1950s, he's a walk-on at the British open, destroying the reigning champ, and becoming Pakistan's first national hero. The film mixes contemporary interviews of Hashim, his family (also champions), friends, and opponents with photographs and film clips of a young, then middle-aged, squat, friendly, competitive but courtly man winning first in Britain then in the U.S. "Keep eye on ball," he advises.