Shabaash Mithu Review: Watch this film to know the inspiring tale of one of the greatest women cricket legend of the world
Shabaash Mithu Movie Rating: 3 Stars
Just watched Shabaash Mithu movie on Voot Select. Let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Mumtaz Sorcar, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala, Devadarshini and Sameer Dharmadhikari
Director: Srijit Mukherji
Release Date: 15th July in cinemas & Digital debut on Voot from 12th August 2022
Story: It is the biopic of ace Indian woman cricketer Mithali Raj. For the uninitiated, Mithali is the highest run-scorer in women’s international cricket. She’s the only female cricketer to surpass the 7,000 run mark in women’s one-day international matches. She also holds the record for most half-centuries in WODIs. She became the first player from India, male or female, to score 2000 runs in T20Is, and was India’s captain from 2004 to 2022. She completed 20 years in international cricket in 2019. Aren’t these statistics mind-boggling? Sadly, the masses remain ignorant of her achievements.
Set in Hyderabad 1990, Young Mithali (Inayat Verma) is initiated into the game of cricket by young Noorie (Kasturi Jagnam). Mithali has to first face family opposition because his brother was also fond of cricket. One day, coach Sampath (Vijay Raaz) spots her and advises her parents to enroll her into cricket coaching.
He inculcated a yen for discipline in her since childhood and made sure her technique was perfect. His best advice was that, while in the field, you just play your natural game and forget about everything else. At 15, Mithali Raj (Taapsee Pannu) is selected at the national level. She shifts to the Women’s Cricket Board (WCB) sports facility where she meets the national players.
The WCB chief Shanta (Geeta Agarwal) is sympathetic and even motivating towards Mithali. However, the rest of the players bully Mithali. How she wins them over with her attitude and cricketing talent and how they all then fight not just on the field but even the prejudice towards women’s cricket off the field forms the rest of the film.
Positives
1. Performances
2. Story
3. Screenplay
4. Climax
Negatives
1. Length
2. Direction
3. Music
4. 2nd half
Durgesh Tiwary’s View: When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie on premiere day because it is biopic of women cricket legend Mithali Raj and this was enough reason.
Mithali Raj is former Test and ODI captain of women’s national cricket team. She led India to finals of 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup. The film based on her life chronicles the events of her life’s journey in the world of women cricket. It presents her struggles and euphoric rise in the women cricket.
Every sportsperson has come up through sheer grit and determination. And if he is Indian, then the struggle goes up ten fold. And multiply that by 100 if she’s an Indian female athlete. Because of a complete lack of infrastructure, abysmal training and nutrition, and a lack of basic necessities are a given. Movie has filled his film with many images that highlight the chasm that exists between male and female cricketers. Mithali and the team are asked to shed excess luggage, comprising winter clothing, on their first England tour, as their male counterparts jaunt royally in through a special corridor, with chants of India, India accompanying them. A fan hands Mithali her phone as she wants a click with a popular male cricketer. And worse, the cricket board has no money for their uniforms, so they’re given extra uniforms of the male cricketers. The lack of proper funding is tied to a lack of sponsors.
Although the story is inspirational, writers 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. 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.
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. Still I would recommend every one to watch this film to know the inspiring tale of greatest Indian women cricketer. My view on this movie Recommended
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