In Dhoni country

One of Bollywood's first sports movies was based and filmed in Ranchi. Hip Hip Hurray, made in 1984, was the story of a computer engineer and amateur footballer who went to Ranchi as a sports teacher on a break between college and a job. Most of it was filmed in Bishop Westcott's School and Vikas Vidyalaya, and students of those schools featured in it too. The school in the movie didn't care about sport, but the coach transforms the school team to win them a grudge match. This typical underdog story spoke a lot about Indian society and its education system, but unwittingly it also resonated with the larger trend of that part of India losing touch with its sport.

Ranchi was part of the eastern Indian state of Bihar. At an altitude, surrounded by lush Sal forests and known for its pleasant weather, it was also the summer capital of British East India, back when, about 60km from Ranchi, some Anglo-Indian families developed an idyllic town called McCluskieganj known for a building that houses a temple, a mosque and a gurudwara. Ranchi is now the capital of Jharkhand, which translates to "land of forests", a state carved out of Bihar.

Jharkhand had - and still has - one of the largest tribal populations in India. Ranchi used to be a village of the Oraon tribe, called Archi. Outside of the seven north-eastern states, Jharkhand still has the second-highest tribal population percentage in India, at 26.2%.

There was a following for sport among the tribes, especially hockey. Jaipal Singh of the Munda tribe, for example, was the captain of the Indian hockey team that won gold at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928. He was a proud tribal man, and politically aware. He had to sit out of the knockout matches because he didn't get along with the manager of the Indian team, who was English. Jharkhand, incidentally, was the scene of one of the first revolts against the British.

Even after India won independence, Jaipal continued to fight for independence - for the aboriginal population, rallying against the outsiders ruling over them. The dhikoos, as the tribals call them.

Ranchi doesn't display too many traits of its proximity to the tribal population, or as the 1984 movie showed, to sport. A stadium named after Jaipal languishes in a dilapidated state; it survived a plan to turn it into a shopping centre, but couldn't win against the apathy that followed. The abundance of coal in the state brought people from far away into the city, resulting in unplanned development. The indigenous population claims the influx of the dhikoos turned Ranchi into the typical dirty Indian city that it is now.

One dhikoo, though, put Ranchi on the world cricket map. Unlike the kids in Hip Hip Hurray, he wanted to play football but his school sports teacher turned MS Dhoni to wicketkeeping.

And he was allowed to play. It was almost like a part of Ranchi conspired to make him play. It is ironic that a city that should be known for its tribal hockey players shot to world fame because of cricket, a dhikoo sport as far as the original occupants are concerned.

The other sports movie based in Ranchi, the Dhoni biopic from 2016, produced by Dhoni himself, is quite honest when it comes to the depiction of the city.

Ranchi is a typical Indian small city. It has an old central part, which is the hub of all activity. Right from Firayalal Chowk - renamed after an Indian Army martyr - up to Sujata Chowk, the aptly named Main Road is Ranchi's microcosm. The food, the seemingly easy coexistence of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, a street named Church Street because it leads to Grossner Evangelical Lutheran Church, small markets, and big malls that can look glitzy despite the grime underfoot.

Right by Sujata Chowk is Prime Sports, run by Paramjeet Singh, a friend of Dhoni's, who got him his first cricket kit, his first sponsorship deal, and along with other friends, fought hard to help Dhoni make his first cricket tour that the Bihar Cricket Association didn't seem too keen on. Prime Sports is a typical Ranchi small shop - an adda, a place to sit and shoot the breeze. Endless rounds of tea are ordered, dhuskas (a local fried snack made of rice and chickpea flour) and shinghadas (the Bengali version of samosas) are ordered. If you need a railway ticket urgently, chances are someone here will make a call to a friend who is a friend of a booking clerk. If a kid comes to buy cricket equipment, chances are Paramjeet knows which tournament he played last week, and will ask how he did before going ahead with the sale. You can spend hours here without drinking tea or eating snacks, just listening to stories, just getting to know the people of Ranchi.

To be one with the spirit of Ranchi and Jharkhand, you have to travel away, past the scenic waterfalls - at least six - around the city, into the peaceful Sal forests that continue resisting the dhikoo ways and the dhikoo sports.