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Viacom18 Studios and Colosceum Media’s Shabaash Mithu is the biopic of ace Indian woman cricketer Mithali Raj.
Young Mithali (Inayat Verma) is initiated into the game of cricket by young Noorie (Kasturi Jagnam). Mithali has to first face family opposition and then surmount other hardships to make a comfortable place for herself in the world of women’s cricket. Then, she fights for both, women’s cricket and women cricketers, because they are given step-motherly treatment by the powers that be.
Priya Aven has written the story and screenplay based on Mithali Raj’s real-life story. The story idea is by Ajit Andhare. Although the story is inspirational, Priya Aven has not been able to capture the emotions behind the story. Consequently, the drama fails to evoke sentiments of the right kind among the audience. Neither does it make the viewers cry in the emotional scenes nor does it evoke patriotic feelings in the audience in spite of the fact that Mithali Raj does India proud. Even the victorious moments in the script do not elicit the kind of response one would like to see. That’s because the edge-of-the-seat thrill of the game of cricket is missing in Aven’s writing.
The drama is too lengthy and also long-drawn. In other words, lengthy scenes are unnecessarily devoted to things which could have been established merely in the passing. Of course, there are a couple of scenes which make the heart dance with joy but they are so few and far between that the impact in the overall scheme of things is too less to be true. Priya Aven’s dialogues lack the fire.
Taapsee Pannu does a fine job as Mithali Raj. She plays the game well and also gives a lot to the character. Vijay Raaz is good as coach Sampat. Brijendra Kala is effective. Sampa Mandal (as Nilu) is first-rate. Mumtaz Sorcar (as Jhorna Ghosh) is wonderful. Shilpi Marwah leaves a fine mark as Sukumari. Geeta Agrawal makes her presence amply felt as Women’s Cricket Board chief Shanta. Kasturi Jagnam is outstanding in the role of little Noorie. Inayat Verma is cute as little Mithali. Darwesh Sayyed lends decent support as little Mithun. Anushree Kushwaha is nice as Noorie. Jyoti Subhash provides fantastic support as Mithali’s grandmother. Devadasini Sukumaran (as Mithali’s mother), Sameer Dharmadhikari (as Mithali’s father) and Nishant Pradhan (as Mithali’s brother, Mithun) lend fair support. Tahir Anand is okay as Subodh. Taral Almoula (as the man at the airport counter), and Alka Chatwal (as Tahir’s mother) provide very able support. Aditi Aryan (as Sresha Badyal), Nirali Oza (as Preeti Valhar), Priya Kumari (as Roma Kwatra), Ramsingh Falkoti (as peon Bala), Nisha Gilbert (as the Bharatanatyam teacher), Niyati Jagtap (as teenager Mithali), Vandita Rao (as teenager Noorie), Kalyani Jha (as Perizad), Nandita Trivedi (as Nandita Domar), Anand Sharma (as coach Unni), Ayaz Memon and Richard (both as press reporters), and the others are adequate.
Srijit Mukherji’s direction leaves something to be desired. Although his craft is alright, he is unable to evoke the right kind of feelings among the viewers. Music (by Amit Trivedi and Salvage Audio Collective) is just about okay. None of the songs is of the popular variety. Besides, all the songs are background numbers, and serve to slow down the proceedings. Lyrics (by Swanand Kirkire, Kausar Munir and Raghav M. Kumar) are quite nice but they aren’t easy on the lips. Salvage Audio Collective’s background music is quite nice. Sirsha Ray’s cinematography is lovely. Rita Ghosh’s production designing is appropriate. A. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is reasonably sharp, but even then, the film tends to get boring at places.
On the whole, Shabaash Mithu will not get the love of the paying public. Its promotion is so weak that many among the public are not even aware that it has released today. Unfortunately, a film about women’s cricket and about an ace woman cricketer has been released without much care, it seems, because the promotion is poor. The film talks about the pathetic treatment meted out to Indian women cricketers and to women’s cricket itself by the authorities, and it’s a paradox that this film should be released in such a half-hearted manner.
Released on 15-7-’22 at Inox (daily 6 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Viacom18 Motion Pictures. Publicity: low-key. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor almost everywhere.