Cricket is like a religion running parallel to every Indian’s faith. In this cricket crazy nation a film which talks about the sport is expected to attract huge audiences to the theaters. But I must say in cinema cricket based films have flopped big time, be it Kumar Gaurav’s ‘All rounder’ Aamir Khan’s ‘Awwal Number’, or Kunal Kapoor’s ‘Hattrick’; surely ‘Iqbal’ and ‘Lagaan’ can be considered as exceptions because of high performances and an engaging drama.

‘Meera Bai Not Out’ revolves around a cricket enthusiast Meera [Mandira Bedi] who teaches Mathematics to school students and is a die-hard fan of Anil Kumble. She is thirty and single who befriends only with society boys to play gully cricket. Her mother [Vandana Gupte] and brother [Mahesh Manjrekar] are hell bent to find a groom for their cricketing maniac Meera.

Then enters Dr. Arjun Awasthi [Eijaz Khan] who treats Meera’s injured boys team for free, soon she realizes that there is more in life than dreaming about Anil Kumble or Team India and falls in love with Arjun…

Many people will have an impression about ‘Meera Bai Not Out’ of being a ‘cricket film’ but it is not. Though it has a cricketing enthusiast as its protagonist and even title suggests the same, it is misleading. A good part of the film is devoted to the love story which lacks the red cherry.

The film gets engaging towards the pre-climax when Meera turns away on her ‘match-making’ day to stadium leaving everyone stunned.

Is Anil Kumble thinking about making Bollywood his next home after retiring from international cricket? I am not sure. But I can say he will give it a second thought after audiences’ reaction to this film.

On the acting front Mandira acts her part well. Eijaz looks good and could go further if given opportunity; Mahesh Manjrekar doesn’t really have scope to show his acting skills except towards the end. Anupam Kher tries to copy his own act of ‘DDLJ’ but an actor of his efficiency looks a waste here, well here Anil Kumble do need a mention whose onscreen appearance is somewhat passable.

Finally; I will not suggest watching Meera Bai Not Out this weekend.