Saina

Even though too many biopics are being made in Bollywood these days, this one turns out to be an engaging and moving watch. The film, written and directed by Amole Gupte and produced by Bhushan Kumar's T-Series, was released in theatres but watched it yesterday on Amazon Prime, not intended, but Rajesh was watching, and never realized, I too watched in full. 

Saina is a biopic about ace badminton player Saina Nehwal, starring Parineeti Chopra. She seems to have done a lot of homework before getting into the character of Saina. From learning the badminton skills to knowing about the human that the champion is, it would have been a lot to grasp and implement  she has done it all with aplomb. Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye as Little Saina too is amazing. 

The film follows Saina, soon after winning a match, when fans ask her how it began, she says from 'coke', not that we get everywhere now a days, but from mothers womb. From her childhood in Haryana to her move to Hyderabad, where she meets the coaches who changes her life from Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy to Ranjan Academy and then over to Bangalore. The film is about her triumphs as well as her setbacks. It depicts a sports personality's inspiring journey through personal and professional life.

If Dabang was about a father's dream to fulfil the dream he could not, this was about the mother. She says, competition will teach you everything, only if you have the sky, can the birds fly. Her coach tells her, what's important is not what you do, to win a match, but what you leave behind. 

One who never gave up - Tigress of India, is still very young, but the journey so far is immensely inspiring, and may there be soon Part 2 as well to a successful future.