Kaun Pravin Tambe Movie Review: Ordinary film to salute an extraordinary journey

Here's our review of the Shreyas Talpade fronted Pravin Tambe biopic, Kaun Pravin Tambe

Written by Himesh Mankad , Journalist

Updated on Apr 02, 2022 | 05:00 AM IST | 284.6K

Kaun Pravin Tambe Movie Review: Ordinary film to salute an extraordinary journey

Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Parambrata Chaterjee, Ankur Dabas, Ashish Vidyarthi

Director: Jayprad Desai

Platform: Disney+Hotstar

Rating: 2.5 stars

When Pravin Tambe made his IPL debut at the age of 41, the entire country was wondering who this man is. The talk around this leg spinner elevated further, especially in the national media, when he took a hat-trick against Kolkata Knight Riders. All the mystery around this man and his journey towards not losing hope and making a debut at the age of 41 is finally unravelled in this biopic, Kaun Pravin Tambe.

Director Jayprad Desai has got a quintessential underdog story of a man, who believed in even in times when no one else did. It’s a formula that, if executed well, can’t go wrong, and the filmmaker manages to curate an interesting screenplay with loads of dramatic and emotional moments. He manages to establish the struggles of his character well, which is primarily the reason when the rise leaves the right impact. The narrative is loaded with some very strong moments, though there are times when the drama tends to get melodramatic too.

While you root for Tambe's achievements in the finale and get inspired by his spirit of never giving up, there are moments which could have been shot in a better way, especially the family led scenes. The filmmaker resorting to humour at certain instances also divulges from the mood of the film. While the background score is just about decent, the dialogues too could have been better. The cinematography is fine with the essence of Mumbai captured to perfection on camera, but then, that’s the beauty of this city.

Right from the first frame, the director establishes it as a film that’s set against the backdrop of cricket, not a film about cricket. His idea is to celebrate the human spirit - yet being exposed to the quality of sport films across the globe, one would have expected the cricketing scenes to be shot in a better way, with more attention being paid to the technicalities of batting and bowling. Thankfully, the journey of Pravin Tambe is inspiring enough to make up for the flaws in the technical front.

Talking of performances, Shreyas Talpade delivers a sincere performance, bringing in the right amount of maturity to the character. He modulates his voice as per the age, and scores big time in that aspect. As Pravin Tambe, he holds attention and proves his credibility as a performer. Ashish Vidyarthi gets to play a short yet important character in the film, which changes the tide of Tambe. He is earnest and makes his presence felt in limited screen time. Parambrata Chaterjee gets to step into the shoes of a rather undercooked character, whose intentions are not clear until the end. His track is among the weaker links of the film, though, he is honest in his approach to acting. Ankur Dabas is fine, and so is the rest of the ensemble.

Kaun Pravin Tambe is a sincere effort to salute the journey of Pravin Tambe. While it’s an inspiring story, and something that’s unbelievable yet true, the essence of sport drama has been diluted over the years due to an overkill of genre. It’s a decent film, but falls short in the novelty front, despite some well-directed dramatic moments, especially towards the climax. All in all, it’s an ordinary film to salute an extraordinary journey.