With established B-Town powers leaping into the digital space with predatory proprietorship, a number of indifferently received, critically lambasted and excruciatingly boring serials have led to whispers of nepotism and buddy-buddy clout.
But India’s love affair with its twin obsessions, Bollywood and cricket, continues through streaming platforms and OTT channels.
Starting with Inside Edge, which never had much of an edge to start with, Condé Nast Entertainment is now at the crease with Cricket Fever eulogising Mukeshbhai. Kabir Khan has debuted with Roar of the Lion that probes match-fixing.
Selection Day, produced by Anil Kapoor, London-based Anand Tucker and writer Aravind Adiga, is back on screen with a second season. In the first, two village cricket prodigies, Radha and Manju, driven by obsessive papa Mohan Kumar to become professional champions (what’s with the obsession with rural dads and sports?), go to Mumbai (where else?) to play serious ball. The family itself is a bizarre genetic experiment; Mohan married hockey player Manju expressly to father champs, but mama is no chimp. So, natch, she is AWOL.
In spite of terrific individual performances by Rajesh Tailang, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ratna Pathak Shah and Geetanjali Kulkarni, the script is a no-ball. Individual efforts by Dholye (Radha), Mohammad Samad (Manju), Karanvir Malhotra (captain Javed) and even Tailang, who played the idealistic lawyer Ramakant Pandey in Mirzapur, could not bring pizzazz to the show. For the second season, director Karan Boolani replaced India-born British director Udayan Prasad but he hasn’t taken any wickets either. Adiga’s long-winded eponymous novel examines the corruption and nepotism in India’s most moneyed game, but both seasons express at best a desultory examination of the sport’s dark side and at worst is totally off the game.
The mystery angle is Manju’s fate, which we guess will be revealed in Season 3. The plot does raise important questions in the end—will Netflix launch a Season 3? Or will Manju remain in the purgatory of Adiga’s unfulfilled vision? Meanwhile, try to enjoy Season 2 which is better simply because Season 1 couldn’t have been worse.
Show: Selection Day Season 2 Director: Udayan Prasad Producer: Anil Kapoor and Anand Tucker Cast: Mohammad Samad, Yash Dholye, Rajesh Tailang, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ratna Pathak Shah Genre: Sports drama |