Based on the life of Mithali Raj, ‘Shabaash Mithu’ focuses more on the pathetic condition of the women’s cricket team in India rather than the journey of the legendary cricketer. The Hindi film industry has given us biopics based on sportspersons’ lives and most of them had gripping scenes that engaged us in the movie. However, ‘Shabaash Mithu’ failed to keep the audience hooked.
The storytelling was extremely flawed and the cinematography made the movie boring. The filmmaker changed the players’ names around Mithali and that made it even more annoying. Not only that, the makers have procured the footage of the 2017 ICC World Cup from a sports channel. So when the real names of the players appear, one doesn’t know who they are.
Taapsee Pannu plays the role of Mithali and tries to put her best forward, but she lacks in many aspects. Her performance was rather flat. Inayat Verma and Kasturi Jagnam who play the young Mithali and her friend Noorie respectively delivered better performances with their innocence and resilience. They started the movie on a rather unconventional note.
The first half of the movie had slow plot development but the second half too couldn’t bring Mithali to the centre stage. The movie felt very repetitive.
Throughout the movie, the cricketers fought for their identity and ironically they were denied their real names in the movie. Not only that, somehow the movie lost its flow and couldn’t give life to the story.
Shabaash Mithu is currently streaming on Voot Select.
Rating: 2/5
