Meerabai Not Out is about cricket, the game We love. India loves the game! Cricket is the reason for our very existence. Cricketers are our Gods – our triumphant boys in blue.
The film marks Kumble’s big screen debut alongside commentator Charu Sharma, who makes a special appearance. Meerabai Not Out review…
Meera Achrekar, a mathematics teacher at Vishwaprem Vidyalaya, has been happy and single for quite a while now. The great love of her life has been and will always remain – cricket and Anil Kumble (India’s famous leg spinner).
The meticulous number cruncher is, despite not being the classic eye-candy-teenage- fantasy- fodder, a huge hit in class. And that’s because Meera, unlike most teachers at her school, is more fanatical about her religion – cricket, than even the school cricket captain!
Living with her family in their small home in a Mumbai chawl, Meera was initiated into her temple of Wankhede Stadium by her brother, Mahesh Anant Achrekar who played cricket at the Ranji Triphy level. Sadly, middle class making-ends-meet economics got the better of the impressive Maharashtraian leggie, and passion had to make way for responsibility. Mahesh is today a cricket cynic. So while Meera bunks classes and fights for season tickets to every cricket match that is played at Wankhede Stadium, Mahesh steers clear even of the cricket scores!
While the talk in her neighborhood has cast aspersions on her craze towards the game, the bigger problem that worries the Achrekar family is Meera’s still-single statue. Love suddenly blossoms with heart-specialist Dr Arjun Sachdeva and Meera realizes that perhaps there is more to life than praying for Team India and Anil Kumble! However, in between this fabulous exchange of text messages, Valentine’s Day outings and walks along Chowpatty, she confesses to Arjun that she is already married – to cricket!
So, while the maiden’s heart beats for Anil Kumble and India’s fortunes, the more important question is – will Meera be able to commit to her non-striker beau and keep her prospective father-in-law at bay?
In this reality-struck romance, cross your fingers and hope that Meera doesn’t have to choose between love and Anil Kumble!
Mandira Bedi is just okay in her performance, while we have a special appearance by Charu Sharma and Anil Kumble in his first ever bollywood appearance. Anupam Kher isn’t as brilliant as he is in other roles, but the scene stealer is Mahesh Manjrekar. The debutant Eijaz khan has good screen presence.
Anil Kumble’s cameo isn’t so impressive, more so at one point Anil says to Meera ‘You look like Mandira Bedi!’ What was that supposed to be? Comedy??
It isn’t wholly a ‘cricket film’. Meerabai Not Out is primarily a love story. In fact, a major part of the film is devoted to the love story. It actually tests your patience with the slow pace of its absolutely predictable plot.
Meerabai Not Out, the film directed by Marathi cinema’s finest film maker Chandrakant Kulkarni thankfully has catchy music by Sandesh Shandilya. It is a below average fare and much below the writer’s expectations of a Pritish Nandy production.
Cast of Meerabai Not Out:
Meera Achrekar – Mandira Bedi
Mahesh Anant Achrekar – Mahesh Manjrekar
Dr Arjun Sachdeva – Eijaz Khan
Anil Kumble
Anupam Kher
Vandana Gupte
Prateeksha Lonkar
Special Appearance – Charu Sharma
Credits of Meerabai Not Out:
Produced by – Pritish Nandy, Rangita Pritish Nandy
Concept – Raj Kaushal
Director – Chandrakant Kulkarni
Story & Screenplay – Soumik Sen
Dialogues – Ajit Dalvi
Director of Photography – Rajeev Jain
Music – Sandesh Shandilya
Lyrics – Soumik Sen, Professor R.N Dubey, Prashant Vasl, Irfan Qureshi
Choreograpyhy – Ravi Botalji, Piyush Panchal
Director of Art – Manohar Patil
Assistant Director – Nitin Pandit
Editor – Hemal Kothari
Background Score – Sabastian Andrade, Satyadev Barman
Stylists – Pooja & Theia
Public Relations – Spice
Meerabai Not Out, movie review
