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Starring: Mandira
Bedi, Anil Kumble, Anupam Kher, Eijaz Khan, Mahesh
Manjrekar, Vandana Gupte, Prateeksha Lonkar
Director - Chandrakant Kulkarni
Meerabai is about cricket, the game We love. India loves
the game! Cricket is the reason for our very existence.
Cricketers are our Gods - our triumphant boys in blue.
The film marks Kumble's big screen debut alongside
commentator Charu Sharma, who makes a special
appearance.
 While the talk in her neighborhood has cast aspersions
on her craze towards the game, the bigger problem that
worries the Achrekar family is Meera's still-single
statue. Love suddenly blossoms with heart-specialist Dr
Arjun Sachdeva and Meera realizes that perhaps there is
more to life than praying for Team India and Anil Kumble!
However, in between this fabulous exchange of text
messages, Valentine's Day outings and walks along
Chowpatty, she confesses to Arjun that she is already
married - to cricket!
So,
while the maiden's heart beats for Anil Kumble and
India's fortunes, the more important question is - will
Meera be able to commit to her non-striker beau and keep
her prospective father-in-law at bay?
In this reality-struck romance, cross your fingers and
hope that Meera doesn't have to choose between love and
Anil Kumble!
Credits & Crew:
Produced by - Pritish Nandy, Rangita Pritish Nandy
Concept - Raj Kaushal
Director - Chandrakant Kulkarni
Story & Screenplay - Soumik Sen
Dialogues - Ajit Dalvi
Director of Photography - Rajeev Jain
Music - Sandesh Shandilya
Lyrics - Soumik Sen, Professor R.N Dubey, Prashant Vasl,
Irfan Qureshi
Choreograpyhy - Ravi Botalji, Piyush Panchal
Director of Art - Manohar Patil
Assistant Director - Nitin Pandit
Editor - Hemal Kothari
Background Score - Sabastian Andrade, Satyadev Barman
Stylists - Pooja & Theia
Public Relations - Spice
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Meera Achrekar, a mathematics teacher at Vishwaprem
Vidyalaya, has been happy and single for quite a while
now. The great love of her life has been and will always
remain - cricket and Anil Kumble (India’s famous leg
spinner).
The meticulous number cruncher is, despite not being the
classic eye-candy-teenage- fantasy- fodder, a huge hit in
class. And that's because Meera, unlike most teachers at
her school, is more fanatical about her religion -
cricket, than even the school cricket captain!
Living with her family in
their small home in a Mumbai chawl, Meera was initiated
into her temple of Wankhede Stadium by her brother, Mahesh
Anant Achrekar who played cricket at the Ranji Triphy
level. Sadly, middle class making-ends-meet economics got
the better of the impressive Maharashtraian leggie, and
passion had to make way for responsibility. Mahesh is
today a cricket cynic. So while Meera bunks classes and
fights for season tickets to every cricket match that is
played at Wankhede Stadium, Mahesh steers clear even of
the cricket scores!
Mandira Bedi
is just okay in her performance, while we have a special
appearance by Charu Sharma and Anil Kumble in his first
ever bollywood appearance. Anupam Kher isn’t as brilliant
as he is in other roles, but the scene stealer is Mahesh
Manjrekar. The debutant Eijaz khan has good screen
presence.
Anil Kumble's cameo isn’t so impressive, more so at one
point Anil says to Meera 'You look like Mandira Bedi!'
What was that supposed to be? Comedy??
It isn’t wholly a 'cricket film'. It's primarily a love
story. In fact, a major part of the film is devoted to the
love story. It actually tests your patience with the slow
pace of its absolutely predictable plot.
The film directed by Marathi cinema's finest film maker Chandrakant Kulkarni thankfully has catchy music by
Sandesh Shandilya. It is a below average fare and much
below the writer’s expectations of a Pritish Nandy
production.
- Shaami M. Irfan
Cast:
Meera Achrekar - Mandira Bedi
Mahesh Anant Achrekar - Mahesh Manjrekar
Dr Arjun Sachdeva - Eijaz Khan
Anil Kumble
Anupam Kher
Vandana Gupte
Prateeksha Lonkar
Special Appearance - Charu Sharma
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