The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : A case of weak storytelling film review

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Monday, Dec 08, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

A case of weak storytelling film review

Film: Meerabai Not Out

Cast: Mandira Bedi, Ejaz Khan

Direction: Chandrakant Kulkarni

It is a case of timed out! The film was supposed to be released at the time of the Cricket World Cup when Mandira Bedi had quite a following. India’s poor show at the event apparently delayed its release. Meanwhile, Mandira lost her craze and the film its viewers. Now with the Men in Blue back on top, the moth-eaten product is back on the shelf. To step up the tempo, the producers have shot a video with Mandira in her trademark noodle straps and played up Anil Kumble ’s one-scene appearance in the posters. All of it might work against the film for Mandira plays a conventional bespectacled maths teacher who never gets out of her saris and ‘churidars’. Yes, she is in love with the game and adores Kumble, but there is no wild fantasy as is being suggested by billboards. In fact, the entire look of the film is misrepresented.

Director Chandrakant Kulkarni manages to evoke interest with this tale of a school teacher whose romantic life gets affected because of her love for the game.

The director has got the middle-class ambience right but the film suffers from loose editing and weak storytelling. Mandira is quite at ease on the pitch and debutant Ejaz Khan, as the doctor competing against cricketers, is not bad either. But what can they do when there is more drama in posters than in the film?

ANUJ KUMAR

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