Ghoomer Review: Saiyami Kher Is On A Firm Wicket, Pulling Off Physically Demanding Role

Director R Balki pulls out the stops and squeezes every ounce of mush from a supercharged sports comeback drama that has no room for grey areas. Perpetually in power-hitting mode, the no-holds-barred Ghoomer drowns at times in its own emotional over-spin, especially in the climax.

The screenplay written by the director in collaboration with Rahul Sengupta and Rishi Virmani showcases an extreme and inspiring fictional instance of the human spirit triumphing over all odds. No complaints there. If only Ghoomer did not deliver everything in the kind of dollops tat it does, it might have left something to the imagination and been more true-to-life.

A young batting sensation, Anina Dixit (Saiyami Kher), loses her right hand in an accident after she has been named to play for India against England. An alcoholic ex-cricketer, Padam "Paddy" Singh Sodhi (Abhishek Bachchan), turns at her home and tells the distraught and understandably sceptical girl that it isn't the end of the road for her.

And thus begins the arduous process of training on a 22-yard pitch created in the self-appointed coach's backyard. Paddy grants Anina no quarters and slave drives her into overcoming her disability and learning the tricks of a left-arm spinner's trade. Thanks to the spirited lead performances and a few scenes that pull at the heartstrings, this story of human tenacity does have its moments.

No matter how contrived the exercise might seem as it unfolds and wends its way through unbridled melodrama, it makes for a rousing tale that reaches an expected crescendo in a packed stadium where every stroke and every ball is accompanied by breathless and triumphalist commentary (with Amitabh Bachchan doing the honours in a cameo), festive drumbeats and the shrillness of choral abandon.

The hard-drinking Paddy's career was cut short by an on-field injury and the vagaries of the selection process. He is a bitter man. But in a heart-to-heart with his transgender housekeeper and round-the-clock sounding board Rasika (Ivanka Das), the failed cricketer talks about life being a game of magic rather than of logic.

The film takes the assertion seriously and spins a yarn that takes liberties with both cricket and the physics of spin and momentum while laying all its store by the female protagonist's dogged determination to tide over the hurdles that she faces.

The film's propensity to embrace excess with all its might should not matter because Ghoomer, despite the wide berth that it gives to considerations about what is possible and what isn't in a serious game of international cricket, has no dearth of heart. Who does not like an underdog story that reminds us of the human capacity to dig deep and soar when matters hit rock bottom?

Ghoomer is inspired by the story of the real-life Hungarian shooter Karoly Takacs, who won a gold medal in the 25 meter rapid fire pistol event at the 1948 London Olympics and repeated the feat at the 1952 Helsinki Games. He had only one hand - his left - to work with, having grievously injured his right arm in a grenade blast during military training.

The athlete is duly mentioned before Anina's story gets underway so that the audience knows that there is a precedent in sporting history but only in a discipline that has little in common with cricket.

By no stretch of the imagination can cricket be a baayen haath ka khel. The film, therefore, demands willing and whole-hearted suspension of disbelief as it goes about paving the way for an improbable comeback saga that ends in unprecedented fashion.

There is drama aplenty out here and the enormity of the obstacles in Anina's way are accentuated by Paddy's unrelentingly overbearing approach to coaching, which is defined most starkly when he makes Anina bowl on a pitch strewn with buffalo dung so as to limit the margin of error for his ward. Pronto, it helps the girl improve her accuracy.

Out of the blue, Anina and Paddy decide that more speed is what the one-armed tweaker needs. Nobody tells them that the spinner's art is much more about variations in line, length and flight than about pace. At one point in the film, mention is made of Bishen Singh Bedi, who also makes a fleeting appearance, being the greatest left-arm spinner the world has ever known. But no, spin having been mastered, it is 'pace' that Paddy ordains for Anina. And thereby lies a tale that serves to give the film its title.

There are times when Paddy comes across as a shockingly insensitive lout - he has a huge grouse against the world and appears to take his anger out on the hapless Anina. It is another matter that the girl is projected as a character who has the courage to take the challenges on the chin and labour on.

The occasional unequal clashes between the divergent personalities - one has lost everything, the other has nothing to lose, with the line separating the two often blurring - yields tension and heartburn and renders the turnaround tale all the more poignant and awe-inspiring.

It is not that Anina does not have a support system at home. Her hard-nosed grandmother (Shabana Azmi) is the scorekeeper who helps the girl keep her feet firmly on the ground. She also whips up a concentration-boosting smoothie for Anina. Rely on atmavishwas (self-confidence) rather than on andhvishwas (blind faith).

The latter - superstitions and the power of the divine - is represented by Anina's doting dad (Shivendra Singh Dungarpur). Also in her life is Jeet (Angad Bedi), her childhood pal and punching bag who has just returned from the US.

Jeet tries to be help even when Anina wants him to leave her to her own devices. While there is just a hint of a romance between the two, theirs is a low-intensity version of the love-hate relationship that develops between Paddy and Anina.

Saiyami Kher is always on a firm wicket pulling off a physically demanding role with great panache. She looks and acts the part of a cricketer who claws her way back into the reckoning, transforming herself from a batter to a bowler with just one hand at her disposal.

Abhishek Bachchan is a formidable presence as the grouchy mentor who nearly drives himself and his ward to the ground.

As for the film as a whole, if nothing else, it knows its target and gets there but with a bit too much of avoidable huffing and puffing.