‘Kaun Pravin Tambe?’ is the right slice of goodness

Age is not a number. It is a word. Four letters full of drivel.

There have been an umpteen number of films milking the “it’s never too late” cash cow of philosophy. Most of them unfolding tales of great comebacks and attainment of glory. In this highway of heroic movies, Kaun Pravin Tambe? takes the cosy by lane. A 134 -minute story of a do-gooder with cricket at the backdrop by serendipity.

I say so because the film, despite of being a cricketer’s biopic doesn’t invoke it’s genre clause. It rather opts for the harder way to uncoil the story; in the absence of a great beyond.

Pravin Tambe’s entire journey has been a late blooming miracle. The film, however, intends to demystify its own premise lore.

Tambe’s middle class perils come forth but not as a curse but a predicament to levitate out of. His destiny is wired with mishaps, leading to awareness and not self-pity. He is the hero of his story and also the jester of the court called the society.

He’ll play with his friend’s son and make the former look like a million bucks; but slice his friend back to size in private. His falls and skylarking don’t make you feel sorry for him but yearn to walk through the screen and align him in the concerned direction.

This film works as a biopic template of multiple levels.

First, it succeeds in representing empathy, compassion, gender neutrality and the malleable nature of our multilingual, multiracial and diverse social fabric without creating an orchestral brouhaha out of it.

Second, the writing maintains objectivity, understanding the characters world, pretext and equipping it with parallel characters. Those which complement the narrative and push forth the telling without posing like ancillary fillers to hoist Tambe as the phoenix rising out of the ashes.

Third, and by far the most delightful aspect, the film doesn’t get ahead of itself and turn idealistic or morally overbearing.

Precision comes from years of practice. Brilliance is born out of an aptitude moulded out of learnings from personal loss, injustice and dejection.

Kaun Pravin Tambe? does an impeccable job of presenting this concept of ‘fighting the battles’ necessary to hardened oneself for the longest of wars. Micro wars that people fight at the most elite stage of their careers, exhibiting high-functionality and core competence.

Over the horizon of two hours, we witness Pravin branch out from club level medium pacer to IPL clenching spin doctor.

The journey is the payoff. The conclusion, a bonus.

Kaun Pravin Tambe? could have been a great, probably the best sports film offered by the Hindi film industry but the film has its own share own bugs and clogs.

The BGM is a bummer. They sound like free music temps available on YouTube. The soundtrack is dated and shoddy.

Songs sound like bad covers of tracks for the mid 2000s composed in 90s by some over enthu composer.

Perhaps due to logistical limitations, the whole process behind Tambe’s IPL selection is bypassed as the film rushes to the money moments. And, the shoehorned inclusion, or I should say, the transformation of Parambrata’s character Sanyal into an antagonist born out of envy. A weird cross between Boria Majumdar and Sanjay Manjrekar.

The film already had enough meat to be played around. Parambrata’s character could’ve been author backed better. That’s where the film serves its “Bollywood roots” and finds its aberrations.

But that doesn’t hold back Kaun Pravin Tambe? from being a good watch.

With Shreyas Talpade and Ashish Vidyarthi’s firmly gripped performances and equal adages from the parallel characters, this film grows on to become a sleeper hit quite alike Pravin Tambe’s life story.

A screen representation that works as a spiritual sendoff to Talpade’s character Iqbal. The same Shreyas Talpade, who alike Pravin Tambe, has been adamantly successful in his kind of work. And visibly satisfied. For its not always about attaining glory but coming to truce with the flaming passion within.

Not everybody wants to be the king of the mountain. Some just want to soak in the sunrise around it.

Pravin Tambe’s inspirational and culture disrupting career will go into the books, not only as a miracle but as the gold standard of fortitude and perseverance in sports. A legendary career that, thankfully, gets creative justice.

In the current climate of manufactured hate, distasteful lows of discourse, virtue signalling and bigotry, Kaun Pravin Tambe? is the right slice of goodness to gravitate us back to our collective spirit.

It loops us back to a time and world that resonates more, for we relate more. Takes us back to a fine time when data, algorithms, views and numbers didn’t matter. And age wasn’t yet a scare.

‘Cuz age was never a number. It was a word. Four letters full of drivel.

Kaun Pravin Tambe? is streaming on DisneyPlus Hotstar.