A young Muslim woman who gave up her burkha to put on cricket whites, a 12-year-old cricketer who has broken all school records and a devoted fan whose only mission in life is to watch cricket matches.
A young Muslim woman who gave up her burkha to put on cricket whites, a 12-year-old cricketer who has broken all school records and a devoted fan whose only mission in life is to watch cricket matches.
These are some of the cricket crazy Indians who have made it to a documentary that raises a pertinent question — how did an 18th century English gentleman’s game manage to capture the hearts of the Indian people?
Directed by non-resident Indian Sushrut Jain, the film traces the life and times of some known and little-known people who take the game seriously. “I returned to India to make a film structured around the cricket World Cup. But I wanted it to become more of a social commentary with personal narratives,” said the economist-turned-filmmaker who was born and brought up in Mumbai before he migrated to the US for higher studies.
After months of research and spending weeks at cricket maidans in the city, Jain stumbled upon some really interesting characters. “We spent a lot of time at Shivaji Park, the heart of Mumbai’s fabled cricket tradition and the birthplace of great cricketers,” he added.
Jain and his team met coaches and cricketers of all ages and talked to several people on and off camera. Among them was Kaikesha, a 21-year old burkha-clad fan who used to come to Shivaji Park to watch cricket.
“With a coach’s help, she convinced her father to let her play the game and today she is one tryout away from being on the Indian women’s team,” Jain said.
Another character to have made it to the documentary is 12-year old Prithvi Shaw, a sixth grader who plays for the MIG Club as well as for his school. “In the past three years, he has broken all kinds of school batting records, scoring several consecutive hundreds in inter-school competitions”.
Shaw presently captains a school under-16 team with kids a few years older than him. Jain adds that the young cricketer also plays for a local club team where he routinely faces bowlers who are in their early twenties. “The next youngest player on that team is a 20-year old,” revealed Jain who had read about Shaw’s accomplishments in newspapers. “When I met him, I was surprised to see that he was just a little boy having fun out there.”
The hardest to track was Sudhir Kumar Gautam, the crazy fan who gets to matches by cycling hundreds of kilometres across country. “We found him after nearly two months and I was amazed that he has no home, no love except for cricket. He scrapes by on help from random people who wish him well. And he hasn’t missed a match for the past nine years,” Jain said.
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