Based on the hard to believe achievements of both Chandro and Prakashi Tomar beginning their journey as sportswomen in their middle age, SAAND KI AANKH is no doubt an inspiring film for the youngsters, especially the young talented girls fighting with the world largely ruled by the men in power. The real-life is story is bold, explosive and stunning to such an extent that if you are not aware that it all actually happened in reality, you are sure going to consider it fictional, simply written for impressing or motivating the audience.
So as an inspirational film, focusing on its women-achievers, sharing their unbelievable real-life story, SAAND KI AANKH works at one level serving the purpose as it righty makes us aware of two exceptional personalities and their triumph, we need to know about.
But the film unfortunately doesn’t work at many other levels that mainly include the execution, the casting and above all, the way it presents the sport in a highly convenient and so easy looking manner. To be fair with the effort made by the performers, I have the least issue with the casting of much younger Bhumi and Tapsee in the role of old-aged women, as it’s not the first time that has been done in the world of Hindi cinema. Yes, their prosthetics are not up-to the mark, the body language isn’t convincing and there were much better choices of veteran artists, who could have taken the film to another level altogether. But at the same time, the girls did try to give it their best shot and were surely chosen to add some commercial value to the project, that eventually harmed it instead of benefitting it by any standard.
Therefore, accepting the choice appreciating the visible effort made by both Bhumi and Tapsee (in that order), my issue is more with the so fictional and fairy tale kind of narration presenting everything which such a fake ease, taking even the sport and the competitions for granted.
In straight words, the film gets adversely affected much more by its vision, narration and execution, instead of the questionable casting. Many filmy insertions added at regular intervals hamper the story’s overall impact. But most importantly, the film nowhere deals with or makes the viewers aware of the hard fact that ‘Shooting’ is one of the most or probably the costliest individual sports which is mostly practiced by youngsters through hired pistols as most of them cannot even afford to buy it.
To be exact, a professional pistol as shown in the film has to be imported and costs around 1.5 lakhs and may be more including taxes in the present times. Just imagine what would have been the cost in 1990s. So, a general middle-income group family cannot even think to buy it for their young ones and therefore keeps sending them for practice hiring the pistol from the shooting ranges. And when after months of practice, they are advised to buy their personal gun, they have to use their entire savings or even take bank loans for the same cutting down their other expenditures.
The film never tells the viewer about this major fact and shows as if the guns are very easily available and there is no such issue of affordability at all. In fact, I was quite taken back watching a scene when 7-8 professional guns were shown, brought in by the trainer with no mention of how and from where he got them from. The presentation has several other technical issues too regarding the depiction of the sport and its events, but those can be considered as creative liberties taken by the director, though a realistic biographical sports drama cannot afford to do that.
Anyway, moving over the shortcomings, SAAND KI AANKH directed by Tushar Hiranandani and written by Balwinder Singh Janjua, does have the merit of being an inspirational sports drama focusing on two courageous middle-aged women, who showed the world that such achievements can also be made starting in the age when many decide to finally quit. Moreover, despite being a completely women-centric film, it has two men excelling in their given characters too as Vineet Kumar (as the trainer/coach) and veteran director Prakash Jha (as the family head) truly surprising the viewers.
In other words, the film is based on a story, that deserved to be told and that’s what should be taken as the most important aspect of its making which certainly could have been titled in a much better way than SAAND KI AANKH (an avoidable translation of the English phrase Bull’s Eye).
In all, yes, here we have a too convenient & filmy representation of an inspiring real-life story related with an uncommon sport. But it still deserves to be seen by girls and families along with their young daughters as we don’t often get to witness such amazing milestones achieved by two middle-aged women from the rural India, together fighting against the patriarchy.
Rating : 3 / 5
