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hIndian cinema has so far spent 2024 in retreat, its commercial failures compounded by a successful string of South Indian crowdpleasers. Met with Kohli-like precision to reach the end of the IPL, this gentle cricket-themed romance may not be enough to upend the prevailing narrative in the industry; comes as a vigorous middle-order batter, fifty compiled after the heavier hitters have gone for a duck. Still, director Sharan Sharma finds a palpable emotional heartbeat in the material, following a solid game plan: deliver two hours of engrossing storytelling with delightful stars in solid form. Like the sport the film depicts, this movie business is simpler than it often seems.
As with the crafty charmer of 2019 Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, it all starts with Rajkummar Rao and kind of bait and switch. It begins simply as a boys’ story, with Rao Mahendra’s irascible clubman spoiling a crucial Test game by nailing the final kick. An equally lackluster career in sporting goods awaits him until he admits on his wedding night that Mahima (Janhvi Kapoor), the absent-minded medical student he’s been thrust into by angry parents, knows cricket better than he does and also swings bats much better than he ever could. What follows, as Mahendra turns to coaching and pushes his wife into the limelight, is a small monument to partnership building.
Sharma and co-writer Nikhil Mehrotra intersperse their training montages with properly tangled interpersonal business: between Mahendra and a father (Kumud Mishra) providing only poor training, and between Mahima and a husband annoyed by this marital eclipse. While Rao boldly tackles some of the petty aspects of masculinity, Kapoor comes off the grid as a very decent, dedicated player, touchingly hesitant when faced with both the short ball and the ostensible dream of a professional sports career. Sharma handles the minutiae of cricket – including the first concussion test in the movies – but also grasps the human interest and poetry of the sport; a single shot of the Mahis’ feet moving in unison on the practice pitch captures the exhilarating teamwork these recent South Indian hitters are trading in. Could a Hindi backlash be on the cards?
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