It’s not any hidden fact that a candidate's regional background plays an important role in various Indian sports affecting the decisions of the selecting authorities. It’s also a widely known fact how even our National Icons from the North East have faced racial discrimination in the past and how young students studying in various part of the country face it even today.
So when you hear about a film made on the subject, focusing on Football and a student of north east along with Kay Kay in the crucial role of a coach, then it certainly sounds interesting raising your expectations. But when the makers fail to deliver anything significant despite the presence of Kay Kay, Shashank Arora, Manjot Singh and more, then it really hurts and disappoints pretty badly. Moreover one really feels the pain watching yet another poorly made sports movie in Hindi, wherein the most important on-field sequences remain the weakest part of the film as usual.
In short, though PENALITY had a potential basic plot and a lot to be explored in its subject of racial discrimination in sports, it never tries to play it differently and keeps presenting the completely predictable storyline with all ‘seen before’ kind of sequences and execution. The lead characters performances remain flat (surprisingly including Kay Kay) and they never do anything out of the routine in a sports movie that doesn’t have any excitement, pace or build-up essentially required to pull the viewers in.
To be straight, this can easily be missed as a film that misses the opportunity of being an important and socially relevant Indian sports movie.
However if you are really willing to watch something worth spending time dealing with football in Hindi cinema then do watch Prakash Jha’s HIP HIP HURRAY (1984) written by Gulzar and have a great time.
Rating : 1.5 / 5
(Note : At the time of writing this article, the film could be seen at Netflix for a subscription)
