Shabaash Mithu review: Taapsee Pannu-starrer is only for cricket buffs
As you sit through nearly three hours of a near-linear Mithali Raj biopic, there is neither swing nor pace. There is no sharp turn on this wicket. Perhaps it is about India’s premier bats person or batter, it’s more about cricket’s batting story.
Srijit Mukherji has the homework done for him by the genre with its Indian species or in every film biopic narrates the happenings of the central character in a defined process. Brought up in an unconnected backyard and taking to the sport by accident, being accidentally noticed by a sports coach. Boarding with the family to part with the sports person, pushing the guinea pig through tough terrain, the sports person fighting emotional rejection, peer conspiracy, hate and rejection, moving sure and steadily towards the centre stage and finally bowing to take the crown.
This template-filled script to every Hindi filmy sports biopic. Nothing new, nothing fresh with ‘Shabaash Mithu’. The adjective in the title follows the noun and does not describe her. To state the tale even in a minor detail is to credit the film with something new or singularly connected to the life of Mithali not available in the public domain.
Trivia like her being a student of Bharatanatyam or prejudice through the eyes of her ambitious brother and her paternal grandmother or how she got noticed by her coach Sampath Sir (Vijay Raaz), fought with the powers that be (Brijenda Kala) are all not unique to the life of Mithali except in detail but surely not in form.
What works for the film though is the brilliant performance of Kasturi Jagnam as Mithali’s childhood friend Noori. Inayat Varma’s performance as young Mithali and surely Taapsee Pannu. The one intriguing difference in the ‘Shabaash Mithu’ narrative from other’s sports biopic is the gender bias that percolates with cricket fans and their obvious preference for the game played by the men over the women. It is obvious that ‘Shabaash Mithu’ will not bring in the moolah as was the case in 1983. The film is predictable, cliched and is meant only for cricket buffs.
