The latest sports biopic that is being offered by Bollywood is a movie on the former captain of Indian women's cricket team Mithali Raj called Shabaash Mithu. The first look of the movie was released earlier today showing Taapsee Pannu – the lead actress – in her role as the famous cricketer striking an impressive pose.
The movie is slated to release on February 5, 2021. It is being produced by Viacom18 Studios and directed by Rahul Dholakia. In the poster, Taapsee is wearing the trademark wide brim hat that Mithali sports while batting and seems to be in the follow-through of a square cut. The actress is able to bring on her face an intense look of concentration.
Last year, on the birthday of Mithali Raj, both the director of the movie and Taapsee joined the former captain for the celebration and announcement of the project. Now, the ball is set rolling for the movie with this poster.
Taapsee's reaction
Tweeting this poster, Taapsee wrote on Twitter: "'I have always been asked who's your favourite male cricketer but you should ask them who their favourite female cricketer is.'" The statement that made every cricket lover pause n introspect that do they love the game or the gender playing it. Mithali, you are a 'Game Changer'"
Other sports flicks
This movie is not alone among sports movies that Bollywood is producing. On April 10, the much-anticipated 83' about Indian cricket team's triumph in the 1983 cricket World Cup. This movie stars Ranveer Singh in the role of the captain of that team Kapil Dev and has a long cast of other actors portraying all the other members of that famous team.
Coming back to biopics, there is another one about an Indian female cricketer that is in the works. Anushka Sharma will be playing former Indian fast bowler Jhulan Goswami in the latter's biopic. Recently, both Anushka and Jhulan visited Eden Gardens to shoot for the poster of the movie. On that occasion, Anushka donned the blue Indian jersey.
Bollywood's mixed record
In the past, Bollywood has given us biopics on MS Dhoni and Mohammad Azharuddin. While the movie on MSD turned out to be a success, it was criticised for not giving a warts-and-all view of his personality. The movie on Azharuddin though, was accused of whitewashing the story of its central character.
Since women's cricket hasn't got enough attention over the years, hopefully, these movies will shed much-needed light on the struggles and difficulties faced by Indian female cricketers over the years. Mithali, who is among the all-time greatest players in the game, deserves to have her story told to the masses.
It's now up to the director and actors of the film to do justice to the person about whom the movie is. Hopefully, the movie would be an interesting and honest account of Mithali's life and struggles rather than being a melodramatic Bollywoodian affair.
