Cricket Fever grips Bollywood, yet again

There is one thing about these Mumbai film-wallahs that you got to appreciate – they are not the ones to give up. Ever.

In India, nothing sells like Cricket & Bollywood and it has been every marketer’s dream to marry the two – you can’t blame them for imagining the multiplier effect if they can pull it off successfully. The dream merchants of the Hindi film industry have been no different – the list of Bollywood’s cricketing failures is long and illustrious. Sunil Gavaskar, Ajay Jadeja, Kapil Dev, Sandeep Patil, Vinod Kambli, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Salil Ankola have all burnt their fingers in Bollywood. The failures may have caused these cricket players to give up on Bollywood, but Bollywood hasn't given up on Cricket - it probably, never will.

As the World Cup fever grips the nation, Bollywood is ready to try and cash in again. This time round, the list is more eclectic and interesting – it includes amongst others a player, a commentator and a cricket-doll. While you can catch Mandira Bedi and Anil Kumble in Chandrakant Kulkarni’s Meerabai Not Out, Harsha Bhogle plays himself in Hat-trick.

In Meerabai Not Out, the story revolves around Mandira Bedi and her obsession with India’s ace leg-spinner. That’s some googly, and should be worth a watch! In a similar vein, Rimii Sen plays another obsessed character in Hattrick, which is releasing tomorrow – her object of fondness being Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The next Cricket release would be Say Salaam India. Probably the most serious of them all – this would be documentary film-maker Subhash Kapoor’s movie debut. Says Kapoor, “It’s a film that talks about the emerging trends in cricket. More and more boys from smaller towns are being selected in our cricket team. If you see the World Cup team which has gone to the West Indies, out of 14 there are 9 from smaller towns. So I felt that a film with this tone will work well during the World Cup. And also during this time everyone is interested in cricket so eventually the film will also get a lot of hype”. The starcast for the movie reads Milind Soman, Sandhya Mridul and Sanjay Suri.

If that casting doesn’t impress you, watch out for Shoonya. An Arindam Mitra – Anurag Kashyap work, Shoonya stars Naseeruddin Shah, Kay Kay Menon, Satish Kaushik, Seema Biswas, Tulip Joshi and Ninad Kamat. A modern day interpretation of T S Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, this film uses the impact of cricket on people as a metaphor. This is a must see – if you want further credibility, that’s here: it has already been a selection at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

The big one – yes, that’s Bombay to Goa. Loosely based on the same story as its earlier namesake, this film stars the entire Indian team. Yes, the Indian Cricket team. With just one difference – they are all look-alikes!!

Did I miss Yuvraj’s Love-Story?