My reason to write a review of this movie is that it has an interesting and not so talked about topic. 
I am happy to see that a sideline issue, which may not be of concern to many people, is being addressed in this film.

The unfair attitude towards differently born women athletes, who naturally have higher levels of testosterone (hyperandrogenism), is the premise of the film.

This real life problem for a few brilliant, hardworking, and great women athletes, due to no fault of their own, is thought provoking.
The film is based on the real life story of Dutee Chand.

The much chewed and common topics of peer jealousy among athletes and corruption in selection of athletes in competitive athletics, are not new to the audience.

Backdrop and casting:
Beautiful backdrop of Kachch Gujarat, and intentionally adding Supriya Pathak, famed due to her role in Kachch based RamLeela, gives a natural acceptance to the audience.

Also, few other well known Gujarati stage actors like Chirag Vora and Manoj Joshi are organically a good mix. This is thoughtful on the part of the casting director and gets a few extra brownie points.

Having said about casting Gujarati actors, only a few occasional dialogues and uses of Gujarati/Kachchi words are not apt or not enough. In comparison with typical movies which are based on the backdrops of Bihar or Punjab, where the directors take a lot of freedom in using the local language amply to project the indigenous culture. Here, I felt that the director uses Gujarati and Kachchi languages seldom and that too with a fear. To put it more bluntly, I would say in Gujarati that, ડરતાં ડરતાં કચ્છી અને ગુજરાતી ભાષા નો ઉપયોગ કર્યો છે. જો વધુ કરી શકાયો હોત તો કલચરલ ફ્લેવર વધુ ઉપસી શકી હોત!
 Better use of Gujarati or Kachhi could have added a local cultural flavor. I consider this as a missed opportunity by the director Akarsh Khurana and the script writers, Lisha Bajaj, Kanika Dhillon, and Aniruddha Guha.


Similarly,  music director  Amit Trivedi also failed as a music director to do justice to the cultural accent. An average, (ચીલાચાલુ) quality music. If Sanjay bhai Leela Bhansali (use of 'Bhai' is intentional!), who is not even a full time professional music director, could do great job as a music director giving required suitable music with local Gujarati flavor, why not Amit bhai Trivedi, whose full time profession is music!
  It is my opinion that currently popular music directors in Bollywood have lost certain uniqueness and identity. They all sound the same! (Pun intended).  Frankly, lately, some originality is eagerly in waiting, which was found when ARR initially entered the music scene.
Though socially and culturally Indian audience is tilting nationalistic, Bollywood music is bending its pitch towards the west.


The rest of the film does not have any salient points to mention. The court scene was at par with a typical good court scene. The reasons I watched through the whole film is that the underlying story itself has merit, and partly due to Tapsee Pannu's performance as Rashmi.
Tapsee Pannu fully justifies the role of Rashmi with confidence as an actor. Her makeup artists and photography get credit too in portraying her well in her role.  
By taking a risk as an actress to be seen as less feminine and more muscular, she proves again and again of her versatility.

This movie could have been made much better. An opportunity missed

I recommend this film with a 6/10 rating.

(10-17-2021) Review by Vijay Bhatt Oct 17, 2021.

e.mail : vijaybhatt01@gmail.com

I know … I know … I am not alone who felt like writing today. There are thousands of you who are writing, or want to write. We all run out of words when we hear that an eighty years old professor with national repute depressed, and helpless due to his illness. Also, he wrote that he feels he is a burden to the society; he finished his role, and has no meaningful reason to stay alive….! How come no one close to him noticed this coming? A professor, a scholar, who has taught, analyzed, and studied poetry of all the nine human emotions himself, became a victim of one! How come he lost the battle he taught others to win? 

I highly recommend Atul Gawande's book 'Being Mortal' in this context. It very well discussed the end-of-life care challenges. 

The biggest issue is the neglect of mental health of the aging population, especially those who suffer from terminal illness.

In the USA the system of hospice has partial success. It is about time India should adopt formal hospice treatment. 

As India is progressing and adopting western lifestyle, it is losing the older traditions of respecting and taking care of the aging loved ones.

It is not a fault of the younger generation. It is nobody's fault. Twenty first century's challenges, attractions, opportunities, greed, ambitions, and rat-race for success have misaligned personal priorities. The society which brags about its culture and traditions is failing at its core pride. The pride of family values!

USA Today magazine reported earlier this year that the number of married or unmarried adults living physically closer to their parents have increased in the last several years. One reason is that they realize the family support system is precious while raising small children or taking care of the disable and old parents.

India had such a support system which is gradually disappearing. Indian youth, it is not too late to wake up! Let us take care of your immediate family members' mental health and physical well being.

Career, money, and success are all transient. Friends and family with unconditional love are eternal! It takes a village!

Before it's too late let us be proactive, watchful, and identify mental health problems and Reach out!

e.mail : vijaybhatt01@gmail.com

Professor Howard Spodek, the distinguished historian and a chronicler of Ahmedabad, has raised an interesting issue about the continuity of Hindu culture and religion in the United States.  Recalling his after-school Hebrew school from second grade through the end of high school that instilled in him the essence of Judaism, asks:  What do we “know about Indian cultural education, including school, camps, and temple (or mosque, or gurudwara) programs for first- and second-generation kids (also maybe for adults) coming from India?”

There have been sporadic attempts to educate children in the cultural and religious tradition of Hinduism.  However, I do not know of any sustained efforts to do so in the manner of Jewish tradition of encouraging children to attend a Hebrew school where they would learn the language, culture and religion. The Jewish emphasis on religious education is rooted in their history as a perennially persecuted minority. To persevere through persecution and the perpetual wandering, the Jews had to come up with a survival strategy.  It was the preservation of religion and culture. 

The famous 12th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides called Jews the chosen people and asked them to keep the Torah and admonished them that God would punish those who transgressed it. (See below the loose translation of my Guajarati poem on Jews.)  Hindus never faced such perennial persecution.  Even during the worst excesses of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the 17the century, the Hindus never suffered like the Jews.  Further, they always had a home that the Jews never had until the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Jews have a sense of history and a historical perspective that Hindus generally lack. Again, to quote Maimonides, for Jews “history is holy, and memory a priceless treasure, because we suffer and suffer and still strive and survive.”  Hindus’ sense of historical memory was largely given to them by the British historians.  Most of the history of India was written only after the British came to India. Recall, for example, the pioneering work of Sir William Jones, the great Indologist, who founded Asiatic Society in 1784.

Further, unlike Judaism, Hinduism has been splintered into numerous branches.  Thus, for example in Washington, DC, we have the Jains, the Swaminarayanis, the Vaishnavites, the Shaivats, just to name a few.  Each claim to be unique and different from others, yet they all call themselves Hindus. Most of them have their own separate places of worship and conduct some sort of weekend religious services including education. However, these efforts are not integrated, systematic or sustained.

Hindus are also fragmented along the linguistic lines. There are many linguistic groups such as Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, Bengali, Sindhi, Telugu, Tamil, etc. in India as well as places where they migrated.  Each language group has its own social organization that arranges regular events and gatherings.  There are even literary associations that hold periodic meetings.  These associations attempt to conduct linguistic education; however, these efforts again are not sustained and have very little lasting consequences. These associations cater mostly to the first-generation immigrants to soothe their social isolation from mainstream American society.

Yes, the Hindus do build big temples, witness for example Swaminarayan temples in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Robbinsville, NJ and other places where there is a large concentration of Indians.  These temples are built to calm religious anxieties of the first-generation immigrants. They are places of worship, social gathering as well as venues of occasional revival meetings when renowned Gurus or Swamis visit from India. However, the Hindu children who are born and raised in the United States are blissfully indifferent or ignorant of religious activities of the temples.

Islam as a religion can be practiced in widely different social environments.  Hinduism on the other hand is integrated with Hindu society and the way of life. How can we separate such staple religious festivals as Ganesh Chaturthi, Rama Navami, Navratri or Diwali from their larger societal context?  The Hindus who migrated to Africa over the last two hundred years have been able to maintain their religion but only by creating a society separate from the host country.  They did not assimilate with local communities and maintained their separate social life.  However, they paid a heavy price for such isolation. Recall what happened to Hindus, particularly Gujaratis, in Uganda in 1972 under the regime of Idi Amin.

Creating a separate Hindu society independent of the mainstream is highly improbable and problematic in the United States.  Isolated attempts to create such a society here have been dismal failures. Witness for example the Hare Krishna movement.  Assimilation of Hindus in the larger American mainstream is a foregone conclusion. Still, the Hindus will maintain their cultural identity in a manner similar to Chinese or Italians. They will have their Little Indias in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and other places with a considerable Indian population.  These little Indias would be like Chinatowns and Little Italys that we find in most American cities.  They cater primarily to the first-generation immigrants.  For the larger society, they mostly serve commercial and culinary purposes.  Their religious and cultural importance is minimal.

Hinduism as a phenomenon will not disappear in America.  It will endure as an academic discipline at major universities.  The younger Indians will continue to participate with gusto in Navratri Ras Garba or Bhangra, but that is because these festivals provide them an opportunity to dress up and dance. Their participation has very little do with the preservation of Hindu religion. Their observance of Hindu religious rituals, if any, would be perfunctory and without comprehension.  However, as long as there is continuing immigration of Indians into the United States, the arriving first generations will continue to practice the religion in their homes and at temples.  But their second and third generations would have moved on and assimilated into the American mainstream.  The melting pot works!

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The Jews

We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt
Wandering for decades
In the burning sands of the desert.
Then came the Lord
To take us out of Egypt
With a mighty hand
And said: 
Out of all people that are on the face of the earth,
The Lord has chosen you to be
A people for his possession,
It was not because we were more in number
Than other people
But because the Lord loves us
Because we believe thus:
That God exists
That God has no corporeal aspect
That God is eternal
That God knows the actions of man
That God rewards those who keep the Torah and
Punishes those who transgress it.
The Lord has chosen us to be a people of his own.
Because we give more than what we receive
Because we keep our religion
Because we serve our God the lord no matter
Where we are on this earth or who we are
Because for us history is holy,
And memory a priceless treasure
Because we suffer and suffer
And still strive and survive.
We have proclaimed the lord to be our God
And the lord has proclaimed us to be his people.

e.mail : natgandhi@yahoo.com