'Shabaash Mithu' Movie Review: A biopic that’s not an underdog story

Updated On: 15 July, 2022 11:53 PM IST | mumbai | Mohar Basu

Telling the story of a famed cricket icon in India is a tricky one. Right at the onset, you have to underline the crux of the story

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A still from Shabaash Mithu

Shabaash Mithu
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Vijay Raaz
Director: Srijit Mukherji
Rating: 3

It’s almost 30 minutes into the film Shabaash Mithu, when we catch the first glimpse of leading lady Taapsee Pannu, who plays former Indian skipper Mithali Raj with a whole-hearted earnestness. Now one can view this either as a problem, where the film lacks pace. Or the fact that the film and its makers were deeply invested in telling the story of its muse without falling into the trap of set norms about stardom. I believe both of these stand true for the movie. It’s almost as if filmmaker Srijit Mukherji didn’t know how to trim the flab from the film. And yet, most of the film’s winsome scenes including a beautifully crafted childhood sequence starring Inayat Verma as the young Mithali and Kasturi Jagnam as her best friend Noorie, come from its flabby parts.

Telling the story of a famed cricket icon in India is tricky one. You have to underline right at the onset what is this story about. Is it about one woman’s rise to victory? Perhaps. Or is it about the famed feud with coach Ramesh Powar that made headlines? Absolutely not. One can in fact blame the makers for playing too safe, never going too deep into the murky areas of the icon’s career. I saw it as a film about a woman who dignified the sport for the tribe, at a time when women’s cricket was hardly a phenomena. The film’s final sequence of Mithali and the team returning after losing the 2017 World Cup to England is significant, because it reflected how the struggle for the Women’s Team wasn’t just about lifting the cup. Much like everything else women in every profession are faced with, in cricket too, the fight is to get equal respect, adulation, remuneration or something as basic as sanitation. Of course they were playing to win. But they were aiming for so much more than just that win. Like Mithali says in a Shah Rukh Khan-style 70 minute speech ala Chak De India… “Haarne ke liye Kaun khelta hai…”

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