She is saucy.
He is cussed.
And director R Balki, who co-writes with Rahul Sengupta and Rishi Virmani, is politically updated.
Right up in the opening disclaimer, Balki uses he/she/them, providing a glimpse of the inclusivity in store.
In honour of late Hungarian shooter Karoly Takacs who won two Olympic gold medals with his left hand after his preferred hand was seriously injured by a defective grenade, Balki presents spirited Anina Dixit (Saiyami Kher) who flicks the ball perfectly off her bat to whack a lech passing loose comments on women cricketers. She makes it to India’s playing team.
A well-executed entry is scripted for alcoholic ex-cricketer Padam Singh Sodhi (Abhishek Bachchan) alias Paddy who strays into the field where selections are on. He still hasn’t lost his genius with the ball.
When Ani loses her right arm in a car accident, the brusque bowler becomes her (tor)mentor, she the spunky mentee, growing from right-handed batsman to national level left-arm bowler.
You know right away that however punishing the regimen imposed by the ‘Whiplash’ coach on Ani, this is going to end well in a packed stadium. It does.
It’s her redemption as well as his.
However clear the destination, the urban mix of wit and tears that Balki strews on the route is refreshing most of the way.
Keeping hope alive, opening a new window of opportunity when the main door closes, and the triumph of unflagging determination, are old truths that inevitably get written in. But the new-decade addition is that Balki bats seamlessly for women on the field, not just with a lady cricketer in the vanguard but also with Dadi Dixit (Shabana Azmi) as the one who knows every twitch and nuance of the game. Balki wordlessly tosses aside the belief that cricket is a man’s game, that women don’t get the pitch.
There is a neatness in the lines and scenes. Ani’s besotted boyfriend Jeet (Angad Bedi) picking up her kit and gamely following her. Dadi Dixit cracking one about ‘baap ki mamta’ when her son as an over-excited father spreads the news that Ani has been selected for the national team. Ani asking Jeet to ‘kaan bandh karo’ before letting off a stream of soundless abuses. Rasika (Ivanka Das), Paddy’s transwoman raakhi sis-cum-house help who says ‘puck off, puck off’ with him correcting, “It’s ffff…. Not pppp…” Breezy ways of sprinkling a few four-letter cusses without taking the Wasseypur route.
There was no need to bring her in but Rasika helps to humanise the bad-tempered Paddy and it’s yet another cinematic attempt at normalising diversity.
It’s also welcome that unlike most underdog pep talks, it’s circumstances that are the blocks in Ani’s story, not human villains that even a fine Dangal resorted to.
Even though Paddy verges on the cruel to obviously strength-train her left arm, and Balki uses the old technique of an un-memorable background track while Ani forges on, there are interesting moments. Cow dung placed for pitch placements, bowling all dressed up in a Diwali saree under torchlight, and Ani triumphantly heaving the immovable flowerpot to get the house key, are typically Balki’s novel touches.
Like Kachra in Lagaan whose handicap turned into a new wrist movement for bowling, finding ghoomer, a new momentum for swing and spin for the one-armed, is the ultimate, stand up and salute moment. Teary for the audience and for those in the stadium.
Like Naseeruddin Shah, the drunken, down-and-out coach of Iqbal who circled with his finger from the stands as his protégé went in for the kill, Paddy smiles and does a ghoomer with his finger, comically keeping count of Ani’s wickets with mugs of beverage.
Abhishek Bachchan puts in a match-winning performance, perhaps one of the best in his career. Saiyami Kher is victorious in standing her ground, compelling you to share her trauma without desiring or eliciting pity. And Amitabh Bachchan is always welcome in any commentary box.
It’s a story that makes the heart sing.
However, Ghoomer is not pitch perfect.
The foremost is that Balki goes too far in almost everything.
The ode to Amitabh Bachchan: Balki is an unabashed fan, so he takes the rude, mean teacher of Black and several of Senior Bachchan’s famous drunken scenes to create Paddy, the cricket coach. It’s like directing Abhishek to reprise Amitabh.
The lines: Dadi Dixit saying she’s a Federer fan, so she doesn’t show emotion, before bursting into a full beam, is amusing. But when every dialogue is written and delivered for effect, the cute turns cheesy with overuse. “I dreamt of playing for India one day and I played for India only for a day,” “It’s better to die drinking than to die without drinking,” “If only muscle was required, Mohd Ali would’ve been the world’s greatest bowler,” Fitness and Fatness freaks, Logic and Magic, Yorker and Nauker. Endless.
The familiar: a drunken, down-and-out failure who comes up trumps which Sunny Deol exemplified as the lawyer in Damini, was picked up by Nagesh Kukunoor when he cast Naseeruddin Shah as the drunken, down-and-out cricketing failure who turns into a victorious coach in Iqbal. We’ve therefore seen Padam Singh Sodhi many times before. In Whiplash and Black too.
The finale: the jubilant ghoomer against the English women’s team becomes implausible with Anina turning into a Tara Singh with ball and bat.
It is an overstretched match.
There’s also one last squirm of discomfort with the recurring emphasis on ‘Atma vishwas over andh vishwas’. Sticking to superstitions of cricketers would’ve been fairer than crushing a religious belief. From Dadi irritated with the decibels of the puja bells in the house to sneering at the sacred thread tied on Ani’s wrist to Paddy dissing her as Lady Dhaaga, one can’t help wondering if the same lines would’ve been written and rendered over a taveez or a cross. Or would that be blasphemy?
Watch Ghoomer Trailer:
Also Read: Taali Review