Two dates! 25 June 1983 and 23 July 2017. The first date is remembered by several generations. Although the second is from the recent past, how many have the urge to remember? India’s women’s cricket team was defeated by England in the Cricket World Cup at Lord’s on 23 July. At the end of all wars there isn’t always smile of victory. The Indian women’s cricket team and its captain Mithali Dorai Raj won the hearts of the countrymen in tears!
After sports biopics like ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’, ‘Mary Kom’, the Hindi industry brought ‘Shabaash Mithu’ to the big screen. A special source of pride for Bengalis is the film directed by Srijit Mukherji, who loves cricket and understands it. But unfortunately Mithali’s celluloid version or Cricket could not be said ‘Shabaash’! Not as a cricket connoisseur, but through the eyes of an ordinary movie lover, no aspect of Mithali is revealed in the film, which can touch the real Mithali’s hard struggle.
A few drawbacks
A biopic does not necessarily mean that the real character has a similar makeup. Taapsee (Pannu) did not try to become Mithali physically in the film. The lack of research work is revealed in the picture. Due to unavoidable reasons, Taapsee could not accompany Mithali for the preparation of the film. Neither the director nor the screenwriter (Priya Aven) thought of compensating it otherwise. At no point in the film does Taapsee look like a formidable batsman like Mithali, who was in fact compared to Virender Sehwag and later Virat Kohli.
In sports biopics, emotions are important, drama is heavy. Because the audience more or less knows the course of such stories. In this film, the story progresses by betting on drama. Since the actual details are missing in the film, two or three common facts about Mithali are shown in a big way!
Performance of supporting actors
15-year-old Mithali’s campaign in the first half from the age of 8. The friendship between Inayat Verma as 8 years old and Kasturi Jaganam (as child Noori) lights up the screen. Both minor artist’s great actresses. According to the picture, Mithali’s first teacher was her close friend Noori. However, Taapsee did not feel believable in the appearance of the 15-year-old character! Apart from Mithali, the real name of any character is not used in the film. Vijay Raaz fits beautifully as Mithali’s coach Sampat. In fact, the cold fight between coach Ramesh Powar and Mithali gets a place in the title, but isn’t included in the film like five other subjects! Apart from Taapsee, Mumtaz Sorcar (Jharna Ghosh) is particularly eye-catching. She portrayed her character well through acting.
The creative impression in two scenes of the film catches the eye. A shoe on the field, and a red Cambis ball all around – perhaps no Hindi-speaking director would have envisioned this scene on Shirsha Ray’s camera! The second is the scene of Mithali writing her haves and have not’s on a notebook page.