How big of a cricket fan are you? Will the entire cricket team be able to name the player? I am asking for the list of names of female cricketers, not gentlemen. What happened? I don’t know. Let’s at least name the top three female players of India. Not even that… let’s ok two. Ok, one.. one must know… You can give Mithu a chance.
By the way, the sports drama genre has been explored in Bollywood for some time. Many biopics have been made, especially on cricket and cricketers. An attempt has been made to give a different identity to the gentlemen’s game through Shabaash Mithu. The film is based on the life of Mithali Raj, the Indian Cricket Women’s team captain.
Story
The story reaches the time frame of 1990 when Mithali and Noori become friends in a Bharatanatyam class. While Mithali teaches dance to Noori, Nuri inspires Mithu to play cricket. Mithali and Noori, playing cricket with the boys in the street, are noticed by coach Sampath (Vijay Raj), who keeps both of them in training.
During training, Noori hides the matter of cricket practice from her family members for seven years. At the same time, Mithali goes to the academy for daily training with the support of her family. During the selection to the national team, Noori gets married, and Mithali becomes a part of the Indian team.
The film moves forward with Mithali’s strong cricketing performances, her journey to become the captain and the rift with the cricket board. The story is based on the struggle to get equal rights for the women’s team in the game of gentlemen’s cricket. During this, how Mithali takes the cricket team to the World Cup final under her captaincy. You have to go to the theatre to see this.
Direction
There has always been a debate about the biopic that the character has always been glorified through it. Mithali Raj is also seen as a hero in this film by director Srijit Mukherjee. Many such scenes in the movie make you emotional about the film’s first half. Nuri’s playing cricket secretly from home for eight years and getting married on the day of Indian team selection shows how many such Nuri will be there in our country, whose dreams are shattered on marriage.
Coach Vijay Raj’s training Mithali by hitting her shoes during practice reveals the unique teacher-disciple relationship. On the one hand, the scene of the airport just before the interval, where female cricket is trying to balance the luggage by taking out warm clothes from her suitcase, on the other hand, male cricketers with complete security and India. India.. slogans. Is being sent off for the match.
These scenes haunt you. At the same time, the second half is wholly focused on cricket and achievements. They are showing cricket matches on more screens than necessary bores you how the lost cricketer in the finale of the World Cup becomes a hero in the end. Seeing this creates excitement.
Sirsha Ray does the film’s technical and musical cinematography. Sirsha portrayed the story very well with the camera. Whether a cricket ground match or a small house in Hyderabad, the film looks beautiful in every frame. On the other hand, if Sreekar Prasad had worked a little more on the matter of editing, then the film could have become even crisper. The story seems pulled somewhere, which could have been edited and made tighter. He does not seem to live up to Amit Trivedi’s expectations in music. Songs on passion and passion in a sports film are the life of the film. The songs here do not awaken the fire inside you.
All the characters in the acting film have given more than one performance. Talking about Taapsee Pannu, her hard work is visible in the character of Mithu. He threw himself for that character, the result of which is visible on the screen. However, during some of the emotional scenes, his expressions appear very straight; if they are ignored, then overall, there was a good performance.
Vijay Raj has once again proved in the role of coach that whatever the role is, it is lived with great ease. Surprise here, Chhoti Mitu (Inayat Verma) and Noori (Kasturi Jagnam) have given excellent performances. The credit for casting the film goes to Mukesh Chhabra, who has threaded the thread of the movie with a perfect cast.
Why see?
Gentlemen’s game and gentlemen players have given you a lot of opportunity on the silver screen; for the first time, women’s cricket and cricketer are being talked about. In such a situation, this new story has to be seen in the theatre. Cricket lovers can watch it. Ignore some of the loopholes in the film; then, the film will not disappoint you. Parents can show this film to their daughters as a treat.
