On the middle weekend of this November, the cinematic spotlight was on Gladiator II, the long-awaited sequel to one of Ridley Scott’s best-known and best-loved films. About less lethal than gladiatorial combat was the sporting focus of its Friday evening (early Saturday morning in Türkiye) as Jake Paul and Mike Tyson faced off in Arlington, Texas. This was shown live on Netflix. I did not stay up late or get up early to see it, and from the subsequent reports of it, despite its intense hype and multimillion-dollar cost, it seems I did not miss much. However, what engaged my viewing that weekend was an Indian film that was newly made available to viewers in Türkiye on Netflix. This enjoyable film, Mr & Mrs. Mahi, which is set in the beautiful Rajasthan state capital of Jaipur and is directed by Sharan Sharma, is also to be credited for having, unlike many other Indian films on the platform, Turkish subtitles in addition to English ones.

It is a sports film, yet, as is typical with such films, it is not really about its sport, in this case cricket, but its true focus is on the universally human stories of self-belief, struggle, failure and success. As such, it is highly accessible to viewers who know nothing about cricket, which will probably be most viewers in Türkiye, though it will make a little more sense for those completely ignorant of this sport if they briefly check out how runs are scored in this game before they watch it.

The main character of Mahendra

A film with a cricketing story may cause one to think of perhaps the most famous Indian cricketing film, Aamir Khan’s 2001 epic 2001, Lagaan. There are certain similarities between the two films, but that being said, Mr & Mrs Mahi is quite different, not merely in being set in contemporary rather than colonial times, but also in not being about a cricketing team. Rather, it focuses on two individual cricketers. The first of these, with whom the film opens, is Mahendra Aggarwal, played by Rajkummar Rao. We first see him playing in a cricket match. His focus is to attract the attention of visiting talent scouts, but to his increasing chagrin, during his best batting performance, they have still failed to turn up. When they arrive, though, Mahendra is not the batsman at the crease, meaning he is not the batsman being bowled at, so he has no opportunity to exhibit his talent. Yet, he is so desperate to make an impression on the scouts that he demands that his partner batsman create a situation to put him back on the crease. His partner fails to comply, causing Mahendra to create, on the spur of the moment, a situation in which he can achieve this himself at the cost to his team of getting his partner run out and eventually losing the match. Thus, Mahendra's main character flaw is revealed at the beginning of the film. He is ambitious to the point of being selfish and disregarding others.

This might suggest that he is something of an unpleasant character. The truth is that he turns out to be a realistically drawn and fundamentally attractive human being. That is, although there are this and other times in the film when the negative elements of his character predominate, he is also often shown to be fun and friendly, and he is altogether rendered a far more rounded figure than the stereotypic and boring "can’t put a foot wrong" hero so often found in cinema. This not only makes him more relatable, but it also contrastingly heightens the viewer’s sympathy for him in the numerous times where the decent element of his character is evident. Furthermore, it soon becomes clear that Mahendra’s base act toward his teammate and team was an act of desperation. His father, Hardayal (Kumud Mishra), had settled that this would be the last chance for Mahendra to prove his viability for a cricket career. Otherwise, he would be forced to work in his shop. Mahendra’s failure to impress the scouts by being caught out means that the dream he has been pursuing his whole life turns to ashes and he is condemned to an existence in retail for which he has no taste.

Before continuing with this review, I must acknowledge that for its main storyline to make sense, I will have to reveal some brilliant plot twists leading up to it that might otherwise take a viewer by surprise. In my further defense, the promotion email I received for this film implicitly revealed the plot twists I would reveal from here on. All that being said, I will not reveal the development of the main storyline in this review. Nevertheless, for those who would like to be surprised by the twists and turns that this film takes, I suggest leaving my review here and watching it first. As for me, I will now continue with its plot.

Twisting plot

A few years pass, and Mahendra is very much stuck in the rut of his shop assistant life. Nevertheless, it is time for him to marry, and a meeting is set up between Mahendra's family and Mahima's, played by Janhvi Kapoor. Mahima is shown by herself and her family to be desirable due to her skill in science at school and the medical career she has just embarked upon. When Mahendra is asked by Mahima’s father to tell them about himself, in his lack of self-esteem, he is stuck for words, and his father creates a false story about his being a sports goods designer. However, Mahendra is unwilling to show himself to be what he is not, so when he meets Mahima alone for a romantic-looking dinner with the façade of Jaipur’s iconic Hawa Mahal in the background, he confesses to her that he is not what his father has claimed. He expects his confession to end any chances with her, but it has the opposite effect. Mahima, astutely regarding sincerity in a future life partner as preferable to bombastic self-promotion, is drawn more to him for being so open with her. This leads to their getting married.

Following the marriage, the bond between the newlyweds, which is symbolized by their nickname of Mahi and, hence, the name of the film, is strengthened by the discovery of a shared passion for watching cricket. In their professional lives, though, they are both unhappy. Mahendra is stuck in the shop, and Mahima is continuing her medical training under the eye of the unpleasant officious Doctor Patwal (Shashi Verma). However, they devote their time together to their love of cricket and this includes one scene where they attend a match together in a stadium, their joy in both it and being together is a joy itself to watch.

Mahima, wishing her husband to be happy, gets him to return to playing the game he loves. Although it is unapparent then, this marks the beginning of a few plot twists that excellently subvert the sports film cliche of "Behind every great man is a great woman." The first is that in Mahendra’s return to training, it is unexpectedly revealed that while a good cricketer, he never reached and never could reach the level necessary for a professional career. Yet, where in the writing world the "if you can’t write, teach" exists and in the cinematic one, presumably if you cannot make a film then review one (I am looking at myself here), the idea is put forward in this film that in the sports world, failure to succeed as a player means one should settle for coaching. Mahendra is told this by his coach and offered a position as one, but he disdainfully turns it down. In this, the reason for his ambitiousness is revealed. It is his need to feel respected, knowingly or unknowingly inculcated in him by his father, and in this need, success is synonymous with external adulation. Without this, he feels worthless, and he feels coaches are overlooked in cricketing success.

When he soon learns that they too can be subjects of adulation, though, on a lesser level, he seeks to take up the coaching position that he had been offered, only to find it’s no longer open for him. While begging his coach for a chance, a cricket ball is hit through the window. Earlier in this piece, I noted the film is focused on two individual cricketers. In another great plot twist, the second of them is revealed. It is Mahima herself. When the coach and Mahendra step outside, they see her batting with consummate skill.

It turns out that Mahima had shown great promise as a cricketer as a young girl, albeit with tennis ball street cricket. Now realizing that his wife has great potential as a cricketer, Mahendra feels he can earn the respect he needs by successfully coaching her. Six months before tryouts for the Rajasthan team, Mahendra first persuaded Mahima to give up her medical career to become a cricketer. He then subjects her to an intense system of training.

Although sports film clichés follow, such as her initial inability to learn new techniques, the training finally pays off. What makes this film so remarkable and unlike any other sports film I have seen, though, is where the film goes with the next plot twist. When Mahima is selected to play for Rajasthan, Mahendra sees all the attention that is paid to her and that none is paid to him as her trainer. As he embarked on training Mahima to overcome his feelings of worthlessness through external adulation, this caused him to resent his wife’s success, which became a serious issue in their marriage, marking the main storyline of the film.

Gender roles

Thus, the film, through its plot twists, has not only upended traditional gender roles by making the sports star of the film a woman rather than the man upon whom it is focused but also how it continues with its underlying issue, which is simply superb. The email promotion I received for this film is "When a washed-up cricketer discovers his newlywed wife’s talent on the pitch, he begins to coach her. But his resentment grows as she starts to shine." This suggested to me that the film would look at gender roles and show that in the modern era, certain men are okay with the advancement of women but only on the proviso that their own dominance is not called into question. Yet, this film is far more profound than this. For traditional gender roles, these are not really the questions here at all. From the commencement of their marriage, even if cricket had not emerged as a new career path for them both, Mahima would have become the main breadwinner of the family. She would have become a doctor while Mahendra remained a shop assistant. Yet, at no point does Mahendra look like he has a problem with this.

Similarly, when cricket as a career has become their common focus, he is keen to train Mahima for success in this field, believing that coaches are never as highly regarded as players. Thus, he is still okay with being the less prominent spouse. What causes Mahendra to become bitter is not his being in the less societally prestigious role in the marriage – a situation that inverts the traditional expectations of gender roles in India and around the world – but that he feels he is not seen at all, which for someone who believes that self-esteem can only be created externally is particularly painful. While it does not render his subsequent behavior commendable, it makes it understandable. Thus, The film highlights that for a relationship to be healthy, both partners need to respect each other, which can only occur if they value themselves first.

The societal advancement of women is definitely to be welcomed. If, however, it comes at the cost of the self-esteem of men rather than finding a new societal form in which both genders can find the maximum possible self-realization, it risks replacing one injustice with another, and it will create a backlash which we may well have witnessed something of in the recent U.S. election.

Further remarks

Another commendable element of this film is how the two main male characters are depicted. Mahendra has already been touched upon. However, his father, Hardayal, also becomes less of a stereotype than he first appears. Though the faults in the son seem to stem from his father’s faulty parenting, as the film progresses, the viewer also comes to have some sympathy for him. Mahendra is such an airheaded shop assistant that he not only fails to carry out easy tasks correctly but, on one occasion, fails to lock up properly, which leads to the shop being robbed. Although Hardayal is naturally infuriated by this and actually slaps his son, he does not seem to be permanently resentful but seems to get over it all rather quickly. Also, as the film develops, we see a greater humanity in this man.

Although this is a delightful and profound film, it is not flawless. Here, I will deal with some of its issues. The first stems from the positive one just mentioned. While Mahendra and Hardayal are rounded characters with positive and negative elements, the two main female characters, Mahima and Mahendra’s mother, Geeta (Zarina Wahab), are solely good. This renders them less realistically human, though the decision to depict them in this way is understandable as it would otherwise overly complicate an already serpentine storyline. Less explicable as an issue in terms of character is the abrupt character change that Mahendra makes when he turns nasty. It seems so foreign to his fundamental amiability that it gives him something of a Jekyll and Hyde quality.

My main issue with this film, though, is not unique to it in any way. It is familiar with the typical sports film that it has a central motif: success in sports results from trusting oneself. This is a tired cliche, but it is unlikely to be retired in any sports film in the near future. The obvious silliness of it is that it contradicts a key element of the film – the need for the intense training that Mahendra puts Mahima through. For if trusting oneself is all that matters, her development of specific skill sets would be rendered moot. It also contradicts common sense. It is obvious to me, at least, that if I believe myself to be the best footballer in the world, this does not mean when I kick a ball about, I suddenly turn into Lionel Messi. There is also a logical problem with this idea, for it leaves open the question of whether, in an aggressive sport such as cricket, both the bowler and the batswoman attain full trust in themselves and which one comes off successfully.

In addition, I will leave aside certain other corny elements here as not being of much matter one way or another. All the same, I will end by reaffirming that, on the whole, this film has both profundity and is great fun to watch.

Review: 4 out of 5