Saina: A perfect biopic of a true hero
Thank God for true heroes and for a film about a true hero like Saina Nehwal rather than some gangster whose life-story should be thrown into the nearest gutter. 'Saina' is a picture-perfect biopic. Inspiring and engaging, it makes all the right noises (and that includes some wonderfully worded motivational songs in the background) and shuffles its confident feet in the comforting domain.
People may not get to see anything unexpected in this biopic. The bandwidth of storytelling for all sports biopic is nearly identical - struggle preferably with a pushy parent goading the prodigy to glory and greatness, the stardom, the fall and the final triumph. Saina goes through the motions with sure-handed efficacy.
The sequences on the badminton court are well shot. Cinematographer Piyush Shah lenses the insecure middle-class girl and her dreams in the opposite of rose-tinted glasses. No one looks like an amateur trying to be professional, least of all Parineeti Chopra, who plays Saina with a swagger. She imbibes the real Saina's courtly mannerism seamlessly. The performance is not a showoff. It does not invite attention. Rather, the world of Saina's growth is constructed tenderly brick by brick.
We first meet young Saina (the quietly effective Naisha Kaur Bhatoye) being pushed almost to the edge by her mother Usha Rani (Meghna Malik), herself a state-level badminton player now thrusting her incomplete dreams on her younger daughter. The elder one, played with graceful anonymity by Dimple Kalshan remains in the shadows.
Some of Usha's bullying tactics verge on child abuse. It is to Meghna's credit that she makes the mother's part more motivational. Her raging passion to see her child excel is a revelation.
Director Amole Gupte weaves in and out of Saina's family life with tender care. The dialogues are immensely helpful in giving the characters and the plot points the anchoring impetus. Saina's gentle father (Subhrajyoti Bharat) is described as 'Do Bigha Zameen ke Balraj Sahni'.
An affable coach describes the way badminton is perceived in our movies by referring to the song 'Dhal Gaya Din' from 'Humjoli', where Jeetendra and Leena Chandravarkar reduced the shuttle-cock to a beatmaker. Cinema literate and articulate, 'Saina' will make the audience laugh out loud and move them to tears.
In one sequence after Saina is ordered by her coach to have a dozen egg whites
for breakfast, her mother wonders what they will do with all the yolk. This is followed by a shot of the ever-docile father with a plate filled with egg yolks in front of him.
Speaking of the coach, his name was changed from Pullela Gopichand to Rajan. Played by Manav Kaul, the coach comes across as some kind of an egotist, forbidding Saina from seeing her incredibly devoted boyfriend Kashyap (real-life badminton player Eshan Naqvi, playing certifiable son-in-law material).
The film spreads its wings far and wide creating a commodious yet compact world of sports and sexism, parental bullying and filial allegiance, sport etiquette and sporting tolerance, a big dream and bigger achievements. The theme song 'Main Parinda Kyon Banoon Mujhe Aasman Banna Hai/ Main Panna Kyun Banoon Mujhe Dastaan Banna Hai' says it all.
