Panga

When I saw Panga's trailer - I was not impressed much. I found it to be a routine movie. But after the good reviews and rating from everywhere, I decided to go and see it. I love Kangana Ranaut. She is unusual, and brave. She has stood against the tide.

Panga is a story of a girl who was India Kabbadi's women's team captain, but left her sports career when she got pregnant. She devoted her life to her family - husband, son and her job - as a railway ticket counter clerk.

It was only after much ado - she was pushed by her son's desire to give a re-try to play kabbadi. That little effort to keep her son happy becomes a bigger desire to represent the Indian Kabbadi team again and play for India at International level.

The rest of the movie is about her and her family's struggle and support, the ups and downs of her journey to play for India again.

Does she succeed against all odds? She does.

Director and writer Ashwini Iyer Tiwari who was a working in advertising and who made Neel Batte Sannata earlier with Swara Bhaskar is in full form.

With a little bit of hesitation, but without taking credit away from her, it needs to be mentioned here that she is the wife of the Director Nitesh Tiwari who made Dangal and also has co-written the story, screenplay and dialogue of this movie. One cannot deny his role in her growth, but one cannot also take away any credit away from her as she is the honcho of this ship - Panga.

The movie presents the case of women's empowerment in a very subtle way - without much ado and fanfare or preachy lectures. The story and the everyday characters of the movie are woven with such ease that their response to each situation says a lot without a spoken words.

All credit to Kangana. She carries the film well on her shoulders. She stands like a giant - capturing the essence of the main protagonist Jaya Nigam. All the other actresses/ actors around her play best in their small yet well defined characters supporting the central character.

The winner of a movie is identified by the number of times it involuntarily makes our tears roll from our eyes. This movie touches the heart chords and makes us feel good within in the way the movie develops and grows from a slow-paced first half to the fast-forward of second-half and crescendo of an ending.

Special mention is given to Jessie Gill, who plays Kangana's soft and sweet and understanding husband. Richa Chaddha who plays Kangana's friend, Neena Gupta - Kangana's mother and Yagna Bhasin - Kangana' son have played their roles well.

The movie is a nice feel good movie that makes us go to the cinema halls.

I would go with 7.25 out of 10