In many ways, Shabaash Mithu is the movie you anticipate. Another overbearing, unsubtle sports movie that only exists to highlight its message about the underdog. There is, nevertheless, a calmer, more personal human story buried somewhere inside its strident mainstream grammar.
The Taapsee Pannu-starring film tells the story of recently retired Indian cricket captain Mithali Raj (I believe she is now contractually required to star in any film that is even remotely related to sports).
Numerous honors and accomplishments have been bestowed upon her throughout her 23-year career, including becoming the first Indian captain to captain her nation to two World Cup finals and setting a new record for the highest individual Test score at the age of 19. Shabaash Mithu uses her experience to illustrate the challenges and uphill battle that women’s cricket in India faces.
Young Mithali Raj (Inayat Verma) and her bond with her fiery buddy Noori are introduced in the first, and possibly most memorable, leg of the movie (a wonderfully commanding Kasturi Jagnam). She is introduced to cricket by Noori, who also sees her potential and allows her to replace Murad as the MC Sher.
The two begin playing the game in secret (as girls are obviously not permitted to play with guys) until Sampath Sir, the local cricket coach discovers them (Vijay Raaz always understands the assignment, here bringing his token hardened wisdom).
The film by Srijit Mukherji proclaims itself loudly from the very beginning. Srijit creates movies that yell at you (Begum Jaan). It states, reiterates, and italicizes every emotional beat. However, the message comes through in these early parts of the story despite the shrieking. I like that Priya Aven’s screenplay gave the heartwarming friendship between the two girls a significant amount of time while keeping the cricket in the background.
Of course, our time jump comes soon enough. After seven years, Mithali has developed into Taapsee Pannu. You don’t believe Taapsee’s portrayal of herself as a 16-year-old for the majority of this movie.
Even if you overlook that fact, it still applies. As soon as Mithali learns she has been chosen for the national camp, her initial joy turns to disappointment. She’s not very popular among her teammates because they perceive her as inexperienced and young. She also discovers the hard way that ultimately making it to the top levels of women’s cricket is only the beginning of a struggle. the beginning of a lifetime fight to be seen, heard, and taken seriously.
Shabaash Mithu is the strongest and most substantial in this area. Where it excels is in showing us glimpses of a more intimate story about a young girl coming into her own and negotiating the challenges of finding her voice among her new comrades.
It does this by rising above its harsh, heavy-handed packaging. (Mukesh Chhabra’s casting wizardry creates a cast full of excellent performances, with Sampa Mandal’s Neelu, in particular, standing out as a scene-stealer.) Here, the movie is given room to exhale and, for a while, just be, before it is overtaken by the demands of her legacy and driven to quickly complete the next checkbox milestone.
This part of the story, where Mithali is allowed to be ordinary and real before being forced to confront sexist guys in boardrooms, has a calm about it that I found captivating. It’s also where Taapsee shines the brightest. Where she can manage Mithali’s silent struggle without having to stick out by attempting to fit in.
But the calm is short-lived as the film jumps into an excessively drawn-out second half that quickly devolves into the clumsy, uninteresting highlights reel of Mithali’s accomplishments that we’ve come to anticipate from sports biopics. Sincere origins give way to a manufactured success tale.
The flashy, diffused external overpowers the focus within. Mithali momentarily departs the squad after a major altercation with a bunch of overtly sexist cricket officials (headed by none other than Brijenda Kala, in an intense sequence and one of the few that is given a quiet, without the overbearing background score). (I couldn’t determine if she had been let go or fired.)
Also read: Top 13 Hindi TV shows on Disney Plus Hotstar to binge watch
Shabaash Mithu doesn’t have anything to say after this. I was frantically looking for a way to get back into the movie.
Even worse is the concluding World Cup montage, which ranks among the laziest and unoriginal climaxes of any sports movie in recent memory. a hazy, bloated, monotonous reel comprised of real-match footage with CGI actors added. After a certain point, it develops into a mesmerizing rhythm on loop: TV video – wicket taken – cast member reaction shot. Repeat after me. Even how much time had passed was a mystery to me.
Not to mention the countless cringe-worthy moments that will undoubtedly occur along the way, such as a journalist asking Mithali who her favorite male cricketer is during a press conference, an uncle telling the bartender to change the TV since nobody wants to watch Indian cricket, etc.
Also, why, in a place like this when female cricketers face many challenges, do sports dramas feel the need to create villains? Sukumari, Mithali’s former colleague who has since become a coach, is the one who is out to ruin Mithali’s career throughout the movie in this instance.
Even though Shabaash Mithu is said to take place over 20 years, the aging of Taapsee and the larger ensemble makes it difficult to notice the passing of time. Particularly, her mother (Devadarshini) stays the same throughout.
