Review : ‘Saina’ scores with emotional rallies!
Rating : ***1/2
In the finals of Syed Modi International Badminton Championship in 2015 Saina Nehwal was playing finals and in a closely fought match smashed a winner at a record speed of 357miles/hour to win the match which made her World No 1 in Badminton world. She took six years to progress from world no 2 to world no 1 position. Saina is the first woman badminton player to have achieved this feat and the second Indian after Prakash Padukone. In her biopic movie titled ‘Saina’ director Amole Gupte has encased her life journey, her struggles, her professional highs and lows in an subdued manner. Never ever the film gets overbearing or imposing on the viewers. He stresses an important point that the champions are not born overnight, they are nurtured to become one. A sports inclined person or a badminton enthusiast should know the importance of Saina Nehwal’s achievements.
In a cricket loving country like India, all other sports activities get obliterated. But there are some parents who want their children to excel in different sports. Saina (Parineeti Chopra) is one of them. Usha Nehwal (Meghana Malik), is ambitious and wanted her child Sania to become ace badminton player in the country and the world. The pushing nature helps Saina (child artist : Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye) to get admitted in Lal Bahadur Shashtri Sports academy in Hyderabad. Sania is excellent at playing badminton and starts shining on the juniour circuit. In fact she holds a record of winning 4 golds in a day at a National championship. Sania is then introduced to Rajan sir (Manav Kaul) who is a no-nonsense strict coach just like a military officer. He spots spark in Saina and helps her achieve glory. The glory brings endorsements and advertisements for Saina but Rajan sir (on the lines of coach Pullela Gopichand) is strictly against it. Her dropping ranking, an accident and his ego culminates in both parting ways. Saina’s dream of becoming World No 1 in badminton is still not fulfilled but her family and a set of friends including a special friend Kashyap (Eshan Naqvi) keep supporting her. She is considered Youth icon and to live up to that image she too wants to rise up the ranking which had dwindled to world no 9. But after the final match against spaniard Martinez Saina becomes The Queen of Badminton.
Saina Nehwal is the only indian to have won medal at the Olympics. Amole Gupte has a done a good job in selecting portions from Saina’s life to make them count in the film. As everybody knows he’s brilliant when working around children and that is noticed in this films too. He has selected, a juniour badminton player who is India no 1 in doubles and no 3 in singles, Naishaa and she as a junior Saina looks convincing on courts. The same can’t be said about Parineeti Chopra as far as badminton is considered. She is okay on courts but does very well in emotional scenes. Her efforts get noticed and her portrayal does surprise everyone as she tries to get into the skin of her character. Her body language is excellent and mannerisms impeccable. It was a difficult task for Amole Gupte to showcase this film as Saina’s life is devoid of controversies but he keeps viewers invested in the film. The matches don’t look much convincing as he has avoided showing Parineeti indulging in rallies. But the emotional rallies are well presented which are sure to win the hearts of the audiences. Manav Kaul, Shubhrajyot Barat (father) are good so is Meghana Malik who sometimes gives a feeling of going overboard.
In real life Saina Nehwal likes vanilla icecream and the the film ‘Saina’ is just like that, pure, unadulterated by other flavours but deliciously satisfying.