22 Yards, Review: Short of a length

When you pitch for a film on cricket (pun intended), you better go the whole 22 yards. In cricket, the length of the pitch, from stumps at one end to stumps at the other, is all of 22 yards. That is where the main action of the game takes place. So, with a giveaway title like 22 Yards, you can expect nothing but a film on cricket. Now let me state here, for the benefit of readers from countries that do not play cricket that in India, religion, cinema and cricket attract the largest number of followers.

With a deeply religious population of 1.5 billion, with an annual output of 2,000 films, religion and cinema are expectedly up there. But cricket? Should be surprising, because the national game is hockey! Though we have bagged gold medals in hockey off and on, our cricket, a British colonial heritage, rolls in the mazuma, some billions of rupees, to be sure. And we are good at all three formats of the game: the 20 overs a side (T20), the 50 overs a side (One-Day International-ODI) and the Test Matches (spread over five days). The bucks have attracted officials and cricket boards, selection committees, managers/agents, bookies, and, above all, players. 22Yards is the story of one Agent and one Player. It’s the agent’s story in the first innings and the player takes the second innings.

RonJoy Sen, alias Ron (Barun Sobti), is a successful sports agent, with some big names on his roster. He hobnobs with a reporter named Rica (Geetika Tyagi), and they have a barter arrangement. She helps him get his columns published and, in return, he gives her tips about exclusive developments about teams and players. There is rivalry between him and another agent Ravi Khanna (Rajesh Sharma), who bad mouths and even back-stabs him. Out of the blue there arrives a man called Cyrus, who pretends that he is seeking a sponsorship deal on behalf of his multi-national company. Ron meets him, when a few foreign players are also present, and Cyrus offers them gifts. The next morning, there are headlines and TV stories, with pictures, that Ron met and struck a deal with a notorious match-fixer, the same Cyrus. His career is ruined.

Shutting down his company, Ron befriends Sonali (Panchi Bora), who works for the same newspaper as Rica, but who has moral convictions. Sonali’s family does not understand the concept of sports management and think of Ron derisively, as a ‘middle man’. While he Sonali are shopping at a mall for Ron’s birthday, Ron notices a sales-boy arranging some goods, and recognizes him as the cricketing prodigy Shome Roy (Amartya Ray), who had shown tremendous promise as a teenager, but then suddenly disappeared. Ron decides to trace him and manages to find his sister, Krishna (Chaitali Ghoshal). She reveals that Shome has given up cricket after a serious head injury. Though the injury has healed, a doctor had told him that he will never be able to play cricket again. Ron decides to meet Shome, and thus begins the trail of counselling, training and preparing.

Written by Samrat (no details available, since I am not on first name terms with this pen-pusher), the story has a couple of good twists, like when Cyrus materialises out of nowhere and the time when Ron declares his love. Such moments are too few to ameliorate the goings-on that lack punch or fizz. We get only fleeting insights to the horse-trading that goes on between voters and candidates for cricket’s governing bodies, state-wise and zone-wise. Framing of Ron lacks impact and his routine with Rica is contrived. Ron lives absolutely alone, without even a caretaker, which looks strange, since he is a millionaire many times over. Dialogue, again by Samrat, remains functional throughout the film. Even when the characters indulge in some glib-talking, they fail to impress. The two-part story has a TV series ring to it, with the sister and the counsellor being stock-characters. Turning a top psychiatrist, Dr. Zahid Khan (Rajit Kapur), into a tailor really takes the cake.

Not often does one come across a cricket-based film directed by a woman—22 Yards has Mitali Ghoshal wielding the megaphone. 22 Yards leaves much to be desired, on the directorial front. One sees repeated shots of police vehicles approaching the Cricket Association of Bengal office, but the disclaimer in the beginning states that the film is a work of fiction, so what’s the point? Krishna meeting Ron on a stair-case looks corny. With no real effort at all, Ron is able to convince Shome to get back to cricket, and ditto for persuading Dr. Khan to get back to counselling.

Cricket match scenes needed to be better staged. Shots of three helicopters flying above a stadium, and a player being injured on the head by a batsman’s stroke, used out of context right in the beginning of the film, are repeated towards the end, in their context. Some flashes appear as flashbacks that lead nowhere. One hears cries of “Nadeem, Nadeem”, and they have a song that has ‘Nadeem’ in it. We never get to know who Nadeem is. The surprise birthday party is a good surprise, though showing Ron’s birthday twice, albeit after a time lag, is poor imagination, especially for a person who says he does not celebrate his birthday. Ron’s interaction with his driver is well delineated, with the actor playing the driver showing some talent.

Barun Sobti (Tu Hai Mera Sunday, mega TV serials) is the sole attraction among the cast. He has a super-cool look and does tend to be over-confident, occasionally mumbling his lines, but look at the competition, and he’s the winner. Women cine-goers might find him to be the incredible hunk, though his body more dory than hunky. Geetika Tyagi goes through the motions, while Panchi Bora scores better. She’s easy on the eye too. Rajesh Sharma has a smallish role and some expletives to mouth, which he can do with quintessential ease. Chaitali Ghoshal has a strong Bengali accent and the idea of mixing Hindi and Bengali does not work. Amartya is raw, but that goes with the character. Rajit Kapur, dependable as ever, does what he is asked to do, and acquits himself well.

Amartya Ray and Bobo Rahut score the music, which is more noise than melody. High-pitched wails abound, courtesy Siddharth Mahadevan, Amit Mishra, Nikita Gandhi, Pardeep Singh Sran and Amartya Ray. Lyrics (Amartya Ray and Siddhant Kaushal) are very disappointing. Camerawork by Ranjan Palit and Amit Singh is undistinguished. At 133 minutes, editor Ajay Sharma has not been able to sustain interest.

In case you are contemplating tossing a coin, like it is done in cricket before the innings begins, to decide whether you should see this film or not, let me tell you the toss is ‘fixed’. Heads is ‘no’ and tails too is ‘no’. It barely makes it to 2 stars, not worth travelling 22 Yards for. To use pure cricketing parlance, it is a short of a lenght delivery.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://youtu.be/g2YUUrd9ryo