Cricket of Whitewashes: New Zealand Hammer India 2-1!

Photo: latestly.com

The cricket mandarins of India, if as short sighted as the shorter formats, might as well gloat over India’s 5-0 whitewash over New Zealand in the shortest format that is the T20I Series, and might as well reason that the process of experimentation has finally given a team for the T20I World Cup coming up in October this year. However, the said team is yet a team of probables only, and the IPL starting later this month might as well throw up again a plethora of new ‘talents’ for the ‘choices’ of the worthy Indian selectors; therefore, the experimentation is far from over yet.  In the second test match played in Christchurch New Zealand has beaten India by 7 wickets in just the third day today thus achieving the third whitewash of the tour of 2-0—the second whitewash being the Kiwis’ triumph of 3-0 in the shorter that is the ODI Series. New Zealand had earlier won the Wellington test by 10 wickets. India had had their chances though in both the Tests—in the first in Wellington the Indian bowlers failed India come back into the match while in the second after the bowlers ensured even a lead for India, though the slenderest, the batsmen failed miserably to drive home the advantage. In totality, India just couldn’t cope with the three-pronged and then the four-pronged pace-attack of the Kiwis on their home turf with fast-bowler Kyle Jamieson towering above all.

Why Team India, on top as far as Test matches are concerned in the last few years, did so miserably having the advantage of batting first on both occasions? The reasons are not far to seek. The ‘inducted’ veterans couldn’t perform as instantly as the team management wanted, you know, putting them up on green pitches suddenly out of the wilderness. Second, the consistent failures of Captain Virat Kohli contributed majorly for the batting blues. Third, injury to Rohit Sharma and the new openers not quite up to the task, particularly Mayank Agarwal, contributed to the consistent batting collapses. Fourth, India failed to have a proper pace battery to match green pitches (Jasprit Bumrah not in top form yet) and still going for the spinners who, obviously, just proved to be ornamental. And lastly, again, the selection blues: even God wouldn’t have an idea as to why the top-form KL Rahul was not considered for the Tests whereas he had proved his worthiness in Tests too earlier; why Wriddhiman Saha was not preferred as the wicket-keeper over Rishabh Pant in whose case, of course, no logic applies as far as selection (perhaps the greatest cricket talent of the millennium) is concerned.

This tour doesn’t augur well the for the away series that India is set play in the near future with even day-and-night or Pink Test matches being planned in Australia. The worthy selectors must justify their ‘endless experimentation’ saga with players rested at will, dropped at will and the seasoned campaigners not even considered most of the times. But for the looming IPL, a veritable T20 bonanza of cricket, glamour and cash, the team management would’ve learnt a few precious lessons from India Tour of New Zealand-2019/20 to prepare for the T20 World Cup-2020 which, on the earlier occasion too, they couldn’t realize in time, again thanks to IPL, to prepare well for the one-day World Cup-2019. Alas!

Movie Thappad: A Resounding Slap on Patriarchy!

Photo: en.wikipedia.org

After presenting two well-crafted socially relevant films ‘Mulk’ (2018) and ‘Article 15’ (2019) filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has given to us one more realistic cracker of a family drama ‘Thappad’ which translates to ‘a slap’. The movie centres on a slap administered by a ‘loving’ husband Vikram played by Pavail Gulati to his dutiful but self-respecting wife Amrita played by Taapsee Pannu. Although based on this protagonist couple the movie also delves into the lives and times of several other couples ranging from a housemaid, continuously abused and brutalized by her husband for all her domestic labour and also earnings, to the lawyer-wife of a ‘khandani’ family, constantly advised by her business-tycoon husband to capitalize on the family name and her hard work and efforts being nuanced with a businesslike elan. Director Sinha also adds to the charms of the film by his keen eye for details and subtleties involved in domestic matters. To the credit of this movie it must be said that in its span of two hours and twenty-one minutes there seems to be not a single idle moment with every frame getting justified for the evocative story-telling except for the unnecessary background songs and perhaps the goody-goody implications at the end.

Photo: news18.com

The movie has absolutely well-defined characters, tremendously anchored by astounding performances from all of the actors: Pavail as the self-righteous husband who cites the unusual circumstances and ‘only the first time’ rather than feeling or saying sorry; his mother played by Tanvi Azmi, who, away from an estranged husband, lives with his son and despite her sympathies with her daughter-in-law fails yet to blame his son for the act; Taapsee’s father played by Kumud Mishra feels for his daughter giving her all his backing and yet fails to justify himself at his wife’s subtle charges in hindsight; Taapsee’s mother played by Ratna Pathak Shah owes her conservative impulses to the prevailing patriarchal values and while entirely by his daughter’s side yet fails to advise her take effective measures; the brutalized-but-jovial housemaid played by Geetika Vidya works as one of the family of her masters’ and goes on relating her conjugal state to that of Taapsee’s, getting profoundly affected in the process; Taapsee’s brother played by Ankur Rathee and his wife played by Naina Grewal juxtapose their involvement in the slap-aftermath with their own conjugal issues. Special mention has to be made to the towering-yet-subdued performance of Taapsee Pannu who has emerged as on one of the most powerful female actors of Bollywood in both off-beat and mainstream cinema.

Most of the scenes and dialogues used are strong, poignantly emotional and realistic. We won’t run through them or the story not to rob the viewers of the pleasure of watching. Several scenes and dialogues linger and remain with us: for example the parting scene of Amrita with her mother-in-law where she says that of course, she’s been much loved in the in-laws’ family, but as Vikram’s wife only, not as her-an independent person, an entity, and that no one in the family ever chose to put the blame on Vikram for his act. The mother-in-law tearfully bids her to keep in touch and keep on visiting.

The movie, in totality, thus manages to deliver a telling blow on the patriarchal Indian society and its much-touted institution of marriage. It’s been said that Thappad is inspired by another Taapsee movie ‘Pink’ (2016) where the emphasis was on ‘No means No’ coming from a woman who is molested, and now in this film it epitomizes ‘Cannot do This—first time or any other time’ coming from a woman who is physically assaulted. Well, if it were an inspiration there’s nothing wrong in that, only good. In a country where more than half of the women faces domestic violence at sometime or other this movie is timely, thought-provoking and it delivers a powerful message to the domineering males that they have no right whatsoever to physically abuse their better halves. More of such feminist movies need to be made on a regular basis.

All wives must make it a point to take their husbands along to the theatres to watch this movie. The exclamation my wife made after leaving the theatre is set to remain with me, “Are such brilliantly realistic movies still made in this country?”