Becoming Mithali

Portraying a demure Mithali Raj on-screen was no easy task for the feisty Taapsee Pannu

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

Her witty repartees are the stuffof legend. Not many fans of Mithali Raj, former Test and ODI captain of the Indian women’s team, will forget her cutting remark in 2017 when she was asked who her favourite male cricketer was. Why do her male counterparts not get asked who their favourite female cricketer is, she shot back. That not only set the ball rolling on conversations around women’s cricket, but it also enshrined her permanently in the feminist hall of fame. And, it brought her to the notice of a starry-eyed young actor who felt an instant connect with the cricketer. “This was the exact same predicament I was grappling with,” says Taapsee Pannu, who plays Raj in her next film, Shabaash Mithu, which releases on July 15. “I had been struggling with that question for 12 years as an actor. I realised we were both negotiating the same space. Hers was a struggle against the nation’s male cricket frenzy, while mine was against the male protagonist-led film frenzy.”

And so, years later, when Pannu was offered a chance to portray Raj on-screen, she pounced on the opportunity. There almost seemed to be a karmic connection with the thunderbolt of a cricketer. The film is also significant for Pannu as it is the last one in a trio of sports dramas by her in the last three years: Saand Ki Aankh (2019), Rashmi Rocket (2021), and now Shabaash Mithu, directed by Srijit Mukherjee. She is determined that this is going to be the last, as she feels sports films take a lot from you, both physically and mentally.