Off Spin

In India,it’s hardly usual to miss anything that smells of cricket. So,Sunil Yash Kalra assumed that it wouldn’t be difficult to keep a tab on the Women’s Cricket World Cup being held in South Africa,back in 2005. India had just beaten New Zealand by a convincing 40 runs and entered the finals,for the first time,against Australia. However,with an exception of a handful of newspaper reports,the internet,the television and most coffee shop conversations greeted the news with cold disinterest. “Forget extensive coverage,it was difficult to even get information about what was going on in South Africa,” says Kalra,a Delhi-based writer and filmmaker. It was a bit of incredulity and a lot of curiousity following the incident that led Kalra to shoot a 30-minute docu-drama on women’s cricket in India. The film was recently screened at the Arnold Sports Film Festival in Ohio,US.

The film,Poor Cousins of Million Dollar Babies,might border on being trite,but is self-explanatory. The film follows fast bowler Jhulan Goswamy,the 27-year-old present captain of the Indian women’s cricket team,and Anjum Chopra,her senior and former India skipper to reveal how cricket in India is not just a monopoly of men. “I used to play cricket with my brothers at home. But when I ventured out in my neighbourhood,the boys and people around greeted me with a mix of jest,surprise and disapproval. At times I used to drag boys out of the field if they made fun of me,” laughs Jhulan. Her graduation to a bona fide terror for neighbourhood boys actually decided her career. And her story is among the many reasons that led Kalra to devote a documentary to the women in the sport.

But making the documentary was not an easy task. “There were just two books on the subject,which I have mentioned in the documentary. There was no TV footage whatsoever that captured dressing room moments,gallery reactions and post-match events. That is when I turned to Anjum Chopra,who agreed to shoot the videos for me,” says Kalra.

Kalra wove his narrative around Jhulan,who hails from a small village in Chakdah,60 kilometres from Kolkata,her association with Chopra — who hails from an affluent,urban background — and the common stereotypes they fought,all for the sake of cricket. “I remember visiting Eden Gardens as a 12-year-old in 1997,where Anjum was playing for India. That was the day I told my father that I was going to be a cricketer,” says Goswamy. “Later,when I finally made a debut as a cricketer under Anjum’s leadership,I was surprised how similar our stories were.”

Kalra decided against turning the documentary into a crib-fest and found support in Chopra. “We didn’t want ourselves to be portrayed as cry babies. The whole world knows what we don’t have. I saw this documentary as an occasion to celebrate what we have. Only a handful in India can wear the country’s colours,wear its logo with a purpose,” says Chopra.

From pre-match nerves to post match euphoria,Chopra has shot various aspects of the game. So,from a jittery newly-appointed skipper Goswamy talking about not getting sleep before a match against Pakistan to teammates secretly thanking a match-disrupting spell of rain,Chopra captured it all.