You cannot do that. You just cannot hit Haris Rauf over long on for a six with such authority, that too from backfoot and at MCG, under such high-pressure circumstances. What are you? An Alien?

Just to have the belief that you could chase that total down from the position we were in, with just 2 accountable wickets in hand, with such huge ground dimensions on play and against a formidable Pakistani pace bowling attack is unreal, in itself and to actually pull the fu&₹ing thing off with such finesse is just out of this world. Naah, it’s not even a question. This guy is an alien.

Grit. Determination. Skill set. Unfreakingmatched!

What a game of cricket. One of the finest that I have ever seen. I watch cricket to live moments like this. I live to watch games like this.

Two teams going head-to-head till the very last ball. Well played Pakistan but the virtuoso had different plans. What an innings. An innings as good as ‘Mohali’ and you know what it means when I compare a knock with ‘Mohali’, right?!

Virat, you have made me cry twice in last two months. Another rare feat of yours, haha.

You are an icon. You are the greatest ever to have hold the bat. You are my childhood. You are one of the biggest reasons why I love the art of batting, so much. You mean a lot to all of us. The game of cricket and I owe a thing or two to you.

Thank you for existing. Thank for making us feel proud. Thank you.

“It’s Ben Stokes with the winning runs, who else?! It’s always Ben Stokes.”

Coincidence? I think not!

“Ben Stokes is a mediocre t-20 batter. His stats suggest the same, too. Why does even England keep him in the team”. Well, this is why!

He doesn’t have the fanciest of stats, but man has he impacted this game of cricket? His redemption story, his self-belief, that never say die attitude and just his presence makes this game what it is.

He had his share of luck today. Wasn’t able to tackle the Pak pacers for the better part of his innings, but he stood. He somehow stood like he always does. How does he always do that, when it matters the most, I mean it just can’t get bigger than an ICC final, can it? IDK, may be great athletes have something special in them, something that common people like us would never understand.

There is a reason why captain like Morgan considered him to be his biggest asset. There is a reason why player like Virat considers him to be the most competitive player that he has played against.

He is the man for the big stage. He is the man for the finals. He is destined to greatness. He is Benjamin Andrew Stokes.

He did it again, folks. He did it again.

KOLKATA – LONDON – HEADINGLEY – MELBOURNE…….

There are players who play the game and then there are players who inspire a whole generation to hold the racket in their hand and dream of smashing the green ball at a tennis court, one day. There are players, who play the game and there are players who somehow become bigger than the game itself. There are players who have tremendous records & stats and then there are players, whose impact and influence on & off the game surpasses their impeccable records. One such player is Sania Mirza, an icon, a living legend and one of the finest sport personalities, this country has ever seen.

In a country, full of cricket fanatics and male sports superstars, there was this lady, who was unconsciously changing the course of Indian sports, with every passing world tennis tournament. Sania’s unmatched resilience, patience and handwork has played a significant role in putting India on the Tennis world map and how?!

Mirza’s IG bio says : “Humour. Courage. Grace.“

And what better words to describe our queen, so, let’s go with these three.

𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘

I close my eyes and think about tennis. What do I see? I see a fiery Sania, punching the air in delight in her follow through after scoring a game point via her smashing forehand. She is absolute magic on the court. Those sideways movements, touches, athleticism, serves, that sound of the ball, off her ‘racket nets’. Ufff. Grace personified.

Go to YouTube and search “Sania Mirza interviews”. Welcome to a rabbit hole. No matter, how much you see/listen her talk, you won’t get enough of her. The way she presents herself should be a chapter in SRK’s course of “How to win at interviews”. Grace personified. (2)

And how could I not touch on this. Isn’t she beautiful? Damn, she is. Graceful as anyone.

𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗔𝗚𝗘

“I have an inner rebel in me and I’m extremely stubborn as a person. You know, whether it was after injuries, whether it was after surgeries, you know, I have been written off may be 30 times in my life in last 20 years. Last time it happened, I came back and became no. 1 in the world” : Sania Mirza

You cannot, not be courageous and have career ranging over 20 years in any field of sport. But Sania, Sania defines courage. From being mocked by boys for playing tennis at a young age, to being questioned of her Indian-ness for marrying a male cricket player from a neighbouring country to getting trolled, left, right and centre by keyboard warriors of her own country for no reason, Sania has always been around controversies. But guess what?! None of these external factors ever dethroned her or put her down, she has fought every obstacle that came in her way. Her god level mental strength has time and again paved her way to greatness.

𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗢𝗥

WHAT A CHARACTER!

Sania once went to a press conference, wearing a t-shirt, which said “well behaved women, rarely make history”, lol. Mirza is bold, unapologetic, full of life, has a fantastic sense of humour and makes reels on Instagram.  One of the few “the Kapil Sharma show” episodes that I like includes the one where Sania was featured with Farah Khan. She is so Bollywood, that If there will ever be a film made on her, I would love to see her play herself in that.

Thank you, Sania Mirza for existing. Thank you for playing Tennis. Thank you for inspiring millions of kids. Thank you for everything that you have done for this country and I am sorry on behalf of everyone, who has ever trolled you. Wish you a great life, post-retirement. Thank you.

Love and Respect.

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a batsman. Cricket was all, I used to think about till I was 15-16. My batting was all I used to be worried, excited & overwhelmed about, even though I never played at any professional or big stage.  Since, there wasn’t any cricket club in my city, I used to learn batting my own way by watching hours of test cricket, be it any country, not missing pre & post-match discussions/cricket shows that used to come on tv like “masterclass” on star sports and practicing with a round stick, a rubber ball and a wall of my “aage waala” room.  Not trying to be a cricket expert/pundit but I have a theory of my own about “what is great batting” and batting in general…since, I have really thought about it all my life. Joe Root’s current form falls into that category of great batting. To give u perspective some other examples are – M. Clarke’s batting during 2012-14/15 with that bad back of his & Virat in 2018 SA. Today, I will talk a little about Joe Root.

Anyone who is not following this series would see Root’s current stats and say “ohh he is in a bloody great form”.  But, I would tell you, it’s bloody more than that. I almost watch each and every ball (because online college life, lol) and I am in absolute awe of his batting currently, especially after today’s innings.(no exaggeration here)

Early this year we saw 3 back to back daddy hundreds (2 doubles) from his bat in Asia. Guy was playing spin as if he was born to do so and has grown up playing on those turfs.  The basic idea of being successful on Asian soil against the spin is by playing either right in front or right on the back(this idea might not always work on rank turners though, there either one need to counter attack to break the rhythm of the bowler or just keep playing on the line of the ball, hopping luck favours you).Root was doing the same, especially in Srilanka. Root also adopted the art of “playing late on the front foot”.  Two contradictory words, right? But this is what he was doing.  He used to go on to the front foot but not hurry.  He used to transfer his weight but not push.  Just waited for the ball to come under his eyes and play as close to his body/pad as he possibly could. This actually is really-really tough thing to do on a regular basis but guess what Root was up for the task. Should we even talk about his back foot game?! Whenever the ball was pitched on the good length, he was quick enough to read the bounce, let the ball drift & grip and then play according to the turn. Also, he had those occasional stepping out, short-arm pulls, cuts and sweeps in his bag.  Perfect batting in the Asian conditions in those first 3 matches. Then he suffered in the next 3 games, big time. That was more of mental stability and temperament thing I fell, which he lacked in the later part. Come this series, that only missing element, that temperament, that mental stability is back. You know that you are in great mental space as a batter and you have a good temperament when you are scoring 100s after 100s and piles of runs, even though your team is not performing that well. This was missing in India, Root lacked it there.

This series, he has been amazing, superb and terrific. It’s not just about the 100s that he has scored, it’s also about the way he has scored those 100s and the shots he has been playing. He has been absolutely dominant on the ground with his bat. Indian bowling attack, which is arguably the best in the world currently had have no clue whatsoever as to how to stop Root(Ashwin might come with some tactics though, I feel).This Root has a lot of parallels with Virat of 2018 SA, difference being the format.

Anything short and wide has gone for runs against Root this series. His back foot play is probably the best in the world, currently. Those delicate late cuts, flamboyant square cuts and those punches with his feet being in the air have been the major highlight of this series so far.  And the fact that he is playing those cuts/punches off the good length balls, is ridiculous, lol. He has not been troubled by that 4rth/5th stump line, been leaving so well. That line has actually been “corridor of glorious certainty” for him.  Chanceless batting.

We saw today how David Malan was struggling against the full-length balls. Just like Malan, Root is also predominantly a back foot player, but unlike him whenever he saw that full ball, he had no trouble shifting his body weight forward and driving the ball through covers or opening his edge by cutting the swing to play it towards square of the off side. This playing with the swing is what Kohli was also doing in 2018.Many people believe that this is one good way to tackle swing in England, purists like Gavaskar doesn’t think the same, though. Clearly, Root has no problems with balls drifting down the leg side or even short balls for that matter. Can u get any better?! The fact that I wrote this much about Root is testimony to the fact that I am in love with his batting currently.

“Indian top order struggled against the spin today”. 5 years ago, this statement would have surprised me but not now, not at all. It’s a new norm now and a very alarming one. At one time, we were termed as one of the best teams that plays spin but from last few years, we have been struggling big time. By struggling, i don’t mean getting out “against the spin too often”, if u r playing in India, u will get out against the spinners, that’s not an issue, the issue is, the way we have been playing spin, in general….way of getting out, not being able to read the ball off the hand/air/pitch and the technique of attacking and defending….hardly anyone in our team puts their bat behind the pad while defending, these days.

NZ does not have too many quality spinners in their team, so for us it was an easy attack to handle today. We played them well for a bigger chunk but again there was a phase in between where we looked a little clueless against Ajaz and lost a bunch of wickets, one after the other. But even in that phase, Mayank looked very focused and played immensely well to put the pressure back at their spinners. With Rahul bhai in the management team now, who himself is considered to be, one of the greatest batters of spin bowling (KP can confirm), I am very optimistic that we will get over this problem very soon. He definitely would have started working on it with our batters already.

India lost 4 wickets today and all of them came against Ajaz Patel. Let’s go through all of them, one by one and try to compare them with how Mayank played.

1. Gill : Bad shot, poor temperament. Gill is one of our future stars, i absolutely believe in this. But his technique against the spin and his temperament in general is a thing to worry about. Even in the series against Eng this year (feb), we saw how he struggled against the spin……playing on the wrong line, defending with harder hands, fishing at balls outside off stump, looking to get extra aggressive at times etc. Unlike other modern day batters, Gill doesn’t have a noticeable trigger movement against the spin (which actually is a good and a rare thing), his body and head doesn’t move as much and remains still and “so does his feet, while driving, at times” & that’s the problem.

Today, he was looking so good and then he decided to hit one out of the park, stepped out, ball turned, he missed it and the WK also missed an easy stumping opportunity. Gill was not at fault, i won’t say it was a bad shot selection, even if he would have gotten out on that. But what followed next was surprising. The very next ball, he pushed at a ball which was going away from him, his feet moved nowhere and he was caught in the slip. That’s what u called “throwing your wicket away”. Got set, fall into the trap, got out…..he would be cursing himself.

2. Pujara : I consider him to be the best Indian batter of spin bowling, even though he has not been playing that well from last couple of years.

Today, he was new to crease, tried to play one his favourite shots, got beaten and he was gone. That ball was unplayable, how would u play a ball, that drifts into u, pitches on the leg stump and then move away from u, that too at a flatter trajectory. The only way to put your bat behind that ball is by playing it right from the back foot and that in itself would have been a misjudgement as it was pitched further up.

In hindsight, Pujara should either have reached right to the pitch of the ball or should have not played against the spin at all, looking how sharply the ball was turning on this track. (I really wanted him to play those on drives though lol, love seeing them going through the midwicket to the boundaries)

3. Kohli : UNLUCKY. Very close, not out….in my views. However, since he was given out let’s see how he got out.

India is two down, the man himself walks into the ground and there is a different energy all of a sudden, going around. Each and every ball becomes an event, suddenly, people expecting his 71th, opponent getting pumped up and so are the commentators, even Das Gupta starts sounding a little interesting lol. And it happens every time he comes into bat these days. Idk if it plays with his mind but it definitely would with most of the players.

Fourth or fifth ball of his innings, played down the wrong line, expected it to turn but there wasn’t any. That’s what “turn” does to u and that’s where u need to read each and every ball without having any kind of premeditation as how to play the next ball…..one miss judgement and u r gone, that’s how small the margin is. Also, bat and pad were adjacent to each other, not in line, as it should have been.

4 Iyer : He played them well in Kanpur and so was he doing today untill he got out.

A ball turned sharply, beating his defence and that actually did him…..in the same over, on one of the balls, he rocked back to tackle the spin(not sure on this one) but the ball just came in with the angle, took his inside edge, hit the pad and he was caught.

Mayank on the other, played one gem of an innings. A masterclass as how to tackle spin on a wicket like this.

Like Gill, he was playing those occasional aggressive shots, but unlike him, he didn’t pushed the bat on a wide ball. He just kept defending them off the front foot with soft hands or played it through the point region from behind with all the control in this world.

Ondrive is also one of Mayank’s favourite shots, but unlike Pujara he didn’t play them today, in fact he hardly was playing against the turn, of course unless it was too short.

Like many others, he also doesn’t put his bat & pad in line while defending but he never looked uncomfortable, defending the balls coming into him, nevertheless. He got beaten so many times bcs of big turn, still hardly misjudged the spin. Looked like he was reading each and every ball independently, so he never fell in the trap that Kohli and Iyer fell into.

They say, “when it’s turning long ways, just keep playing the ball at it’s line, hoping it would turn enough to beat your outside edge” and that’s exactly what Mayank did all day long & his success is there, for everyone to see. Also I liked how he counter attacked their spinners when we lost a few wickets in quick succession, forcing NZ to bring the faster bowlers back into the attack and then from there on, Saha and he controlled the game till the end. Well played Mayank, well deserved hundred.

One of the best uses of colours, I have ever seen in an Indian film/series. Blues, Reds, and Yellows just oozing out of the screen in sheer glory.

Stunning visuals, I mean the opening shot, the umbrella scene, and the way they captured the rain, in general, I won’t be able to get them out of my head for a long time.

The set design, the costumes, the fucking ‘attention to detail’. Top-tier.

The music, I somewhat found its resemblance from “In the Mood for Love” & “Qala,” but it could just be me. Great score, anyway, by Amit. Legend (1)

Vikramaditya Motwane, uff what a range. From “Udaan” to “Ak vs Ak” & from “Sacred Games” to “Jubilee,” with the likes of “Trapped” & “Bhavesh Joshi” in between. His vision was clear, right from the word go, “we are here to make a ‘period show,’ which is gonna be stunning, a love letter to Indian cinema, and a celebration of liberation.” Legend (2)

The show takes a couple of episodes to establish all the characters. But once you are in, you are in for a treat. It starts slowly, takes the pace, gets a little slow again, and the graph goes on. It’s one of those shows where direction takes the cake over writing, even though it’s a well-written show with some good dialogues and characters with different motivations which lead to some great drama and parallel storylines.

Boy, do the actors look good on screen, all of them.

Apar has the best-written character, great arc. And he is so damn good, I didn’t expect him to be that good, tbh.

Wamiqa is so dreamy, goddess for real. She has the best-written scenes, her first scene is an absolute winner. She has done a great job except for some inconsistency, here and there. Those eyes, though.

Prosenjit, hands down, has given the best performance so far. The man found his tone and didn’t leave it for a sec.

Ram Kapoor, what an actor. Has done well, but I found the character to be most irritating. I think the writers wanted to add him as a comic relief but it didn’t sit well with me, at least.

Siddhant Gupta, for the screen time he got, the character wasn’t that layered. Anyway, I related to him the most, was cheering for him.

Aditi: Show me more, please.

Great show overall, maybe in the top 3 best shows to come out of India, which includes ”Paatal Lok” and ”Made In Heaven” (in my opinion). A must-watch. Would recommend.

Waiting for the second part.

Two shots, I have always found difficult to play are sweep and pull/hook. What make them so difficult for me?! Well, sweep, for one, I have hardly played. I always had this fear of going out of shape, not being able to look at the bowl and hence getting hit on my body and I never had enough confidence on my skill to solely rely on my “hand eye coordination ” to premeditate a sweep shot, as most of the sweep shots are premeditated. So, sweep never became the part of my arsenal.

With pull, it’s different. There are two ways, how one could become a good batter of short pitch bowling, by short pitch bowling, I mean, the bowls chasing your nose. So, the cut shot goes out of equation and upper cut is still too fancy a shot to rely upon. So, the twos are –

First – pick the length and keep ducking the bouncers, e.g. : Murali Vijay.

Second – pick the length and play proper pulls/hooks, e.g. : Brian Lara.

Now, having played in 10 over contests, for most part of my school days, leaving the ball alone, was never an option. So, I didn’t have the luxury of ducking a short bowl. And that made me a compulsive puller.

For someone like me who always was thin, growing up and didn’t have enough power in the bottom hand, power hitting never came easy. Slogging was never an option for me, finding the gaps and running fast was all I could manage. But, 10 over matches doesn’t need anchors, one needs to keep clearing the fences. That’s where pull shot became my best friend. One shot which requires least power to hit sixes is pull, the trajectory and pace of the bowler, helps the cause. Even, top edges fly all the way. That’s the beauty of it. So, I used to wait for bouncers, to release the pressure of strike rate. But, still I could hardy execute it perfectly. On numerous occasions, I would get deceived, top edge it or miss it completely. So, my search for understanding the art of pull shots, kept growing and in process, I learned to respect those who could play them with artistry. The list includes Ricky Ponting, Kevin Pietersen, Viv Richards, Brian Lara etc etc. But, the one who has impressed and inspired me the most is Rohit Gurunath Sharma.

There is something very fascinating about pull shots. A well-directed bouncer is probably the most dangerous asset that a fast bowler has and if one could stand tall and hit that out of the park, that doesn’t only destroys the ego of the bowler, but the whole opposition. And, Rohit Sharma has been doing it for over a decade, now. He is easily the best puller of this generation. His ability to pick lengths and dispatch them with meat of his bat, is out of this world. From waist height bumpers to shoulder height shorts bowls, from 120 clicks to 150 km/h deliveries coming his way and from outside the leg stump to outside the off stump, bouncers, he can whack them all, all over the leg side, ranging from long-on to behind the wicket. The range is insane and so is the man.

From the various armour of pull shots that Rohit has, I have categorised them into three –

1. The old school back-foot hook, or in this case, pull.

It’s the copybook way of playing a hook shot. Read the length, if it’s short, go deep inside the crease. Transfer the weight on your back leg and shoulder. Swing your top hand, around 30° to your leg side and hit the bowl, across it’s line and try & keep it down by closing the face of the bat. The idea here is to give yourself just that little bit of extra time by letting the bowl come to you (to get into perfect posture), use the bowlers pace and target the shortest boundaries on play.

Rohit does it immensely well but instead of closing the face, he rather opens it.

Ricky Ponting, hands down has the best backfoot pulls, ever.

2. The audacious front-foot pull.

“Why would even play it from front foot?”

A coach would tell/ask you in the beginning of your cricket schooling.

Well, they are right. It’s as good or bad as playing against the spin, on a turning track. When it comes out good, it looks majestic, but, when it doesn’t, which is the case, more often than not, it looks stupid.

But, then, it’s an ever evolving/changing game. Who cares about the traditional shot makings.

Over the years, we have had some great players, defying the physics and successfully playing the front-foot pulls. Staring from Viv to Pietersen. Kohli in Australia (2014) put an absolute masterclass as how to play this shot.

From that six against SA in t20wc 2007 to his latest in this IPL, Rohit has always been defying that science. The sheer audacity to hit someone like Starc, flat batted over mid-on from front-foot on a regular basis. And the cleverness to wait for a slower bowl from Stoinis and still whack it from front-foot via straight up top hands and sheer power for a six over mid-wicket. Rohit has it all.

3. The Rohit Sharma pull shot.

The last and best of the lot.

You are in the middle of nowhere, neither fully back, nor at front and at a point of no return. The bowl is short and directed at your head. You can’t help but play a shot. It will either take your outside edge, go and hit your body or will go past you. The batters find themselves in this position when they have either misjudged the length, not fully committed to the shot, get deceived or are in two minds. Nobody would want to be in that position, it’s a nightmare.

But, with Rohit, it’s his bread and butter. It’s his trademark shot. Yes.

Kohli : “never seen anyone time the bowl better than him”

GK : “uske paas ek sec jyada hai” (He has one sec extra)

Kohli : “ek nhi sir, dedh!” (Not one, 1.5)

That 1.5 extra sec is the key to that shot. To be able to adjust, just at the last moment, it’s unbelievable how he maintains his shape while playing that shot. It is somewhat similar to a short arm jab, but instead of using his ribs and arms, he uses his top & back shoulders. Unbelievable shot. Happy birthday, captain. Here’s to many more pull shots.

The very thought of this crazy concept was pitched by Avinash Sampath to Vikramaditya Motwane, way back in 2014. Avinash then went on to write its screenplay, and Vikram, of course, directed it.

Let’s first talk about the promotion of the film. The production team, together with Netflix, came up with quite a unique and unorthodox idea of promotion. The two AKs are played by the veteran and evergreen/ever-young Anil Kapoor and the man who is considered to be the poster boy of realistic new-age Indian cinema, Anurag Kashyap. It all started with both of them indulging in a Twitter banter, which many people took quite literally and seriously. The teaser, however, cleared that it was nothing but a promotional stunt by the team. Later, they went on to roast each other in separate videos/trailer launches, make diss tracks, and whatnot. All of this created a huge hype for the film. On the 24th of December, when Netflix finally released this mockumentary, the hype turned out to be real.

Motwane is one of the few Indian filmmakers who, with every new film, tries to break the convention. He comes up with new genres each time. He certainly is one of the most versatile directors of this era. With Ak vs Ak, he crafted a grim comedy like no other. The film is insane and splendid.

In AK vs AK, both the main leads play an exaggerated or OTT version of themselves. The cast also includes Anil’s real-life brother, son, daughter, Anurag’s mother, and father (all playing themselves). The crowd has an integral part to play in the film, and Vikram handled it quite delicately. Being a meta film, and one of the few of its kind, it confuses you in the beginning, but sooner it comforts you. Till the first half of the film, the plot really keeps you hooked with it, but in the second half, your connection will start fluctuating a bit at times. The ending is quite cliché for a thriller, could have been better, but still, it manages to justify all the events that happened in the film till that point, and also, for such concepts, the writing itself becomes tricky. So, you have to keep that in mind as well. Anurag has written some really good dialogues, and some are just okay.

The camera work of the film is phenomenal. The long shots and the chase scenes are beautifully captured by the cinematographer, Swapnil Sonawane. The constant shaking of the camera gives it a “documentary” touch. The fighting scene between Ak and Ak is nicely choreographed too. Motwane uses songs to create and break tensions in some scenes. I heard Kaambhari singing a rap; I liked that one the most.

Now, let’s talk about the performances. Anil was absolutely brilliant. I haven’t seen much of his films, but from the little that I have seen, I feel it was his best work. He gave it all. I am not a big fan of Anurag’s acting. He was terrible in Ghoomketu, which was also released earlier this year. But in this film, he has played a version of himself, and he has played it well. Harshvardhan’s case in the film is a little weird. He has this long monologue, which I felt went over the board and was a bit cringy, but having said that, I think it was done deliberately. Still, I didn’t like it as much.

On the face of it, the film is just an entertainer, but like all Motwane films, there were a lot to read between the lines in this one as well. Ak vs Ak talks about revenge, desperation, insecurity, family, and trust. The film doesn’t judge its characters, neither does it glorify them. The film keeps the stardom of the film stars checked, at the same time, it makes the audience realize how difficult a star’s life could be. Some scenes show that people, at times, really don’t care about a star’s trouble; all they want is entertainment.

**SPOILERS** (in this paragraph)

There are some scenes in the film that I really liked. The first scene of the movie, “the interview scene,” sets the tone of the film. Nawaz’s voice cameo is amazingly funny. People not recognizing Anurag and calling him by all sorts of names, the chase sequences, the dining hall scene are some of my favourites. I also liked the Bhavesh Joshi references. Both when Harsh said, “Motwane fucked me with Bhavesh,” and at the end when he shouted ‘insaffff’….hahaha, loved it.

At the end, I would say, you may love this film or hate it, but let’s all appreciate this experiment by the meta himself, Vikram Aditya Motwane! I am glad that a film like this is going to be a part of the Indian film legacy!

New age filmmaking/storytelling at its pinnacle. The craziest and most decorated film of the year. A Daniels’ masterpiece.

A narrative traveling through two ends of the spectrum: nihilism and existentialism. A war among love, hate, nothingness, and meaningfulness.

Every life decision we make has its own consequences, and every life decision we avoid has its parallel existence. What if we could live through all our “what ifs”? What if we could experience our better alternate realities for every life choice that comes our way? Will it make our life more meaningful and liveable, or will it throw us into the hole of meaninglessness, with nothing more to achieve? Or should we just accept our current reality and try to find happiness, the best way we can? The film asked me these questions, did it answer me back? Well, I don’t know, but the idea of “Everything” existing “Everywhere,” “All at once,” got me thinking and finding the answers. And that’s where the film won me.

At the core of it, it deals with the interpersonal family relationships. But the core of its universe keeps changing, and what comes forth is the actual “multiverse of madness.”

Editing, performances, action, colours, direction—top-notch.

A film-watching experience to savour.

Let’s go back to the days, when ODIs used to be the most loved cricket format. Days, when tri-series was a thing. And days, when India was yet to find it’s best limited over no.3 batsman. 28th of February, 2012.

India was touring Australia. We got hammered by the mighty Aussies in the test matches and drew the t-20 series, 1-1. Now, it was time to face Sri Lanka and the host Australia, in the Commonwealth Bank Tri Series for 50 over contests. Our outing in ODIs was again very ordinary. In our first 7 matches, we lost 4 and manged to win a couple & tie one, thanks to GG-MSD heroics.

We moved to Hobart to play our 8th game of the series, it was a “do or die”. The equation was clear, a victory with a good run rate would keep our chances alive for the finals and a loss or a victory with a small margin, would ensure that we would have to see the Lankans play against the Australians in the finals.

The match day was here. India was all set to play against Sri Lanka in the Bellerive Oval. We won the toss and opt to bowl first. The wicket turned out to be a batting paradise. Dilshan and Sangakkara together put up a show and built a 200 runs partnership for 2nd wicket. Both of them, ended up scoring their individual tons, with Dilshan being not out till the end at a mammoth 160. Sril Lanka accumulated 320 runs from their 50 overs. To be alive in the series, India had to chase down this total inside 40 overs, which was a huge-huge ask, given that we were not in our best of batting forms.

Sachin and Sehwag gave us a firing start and added 50 runs in the first 6 overs. In the span of next three overs, we lost both our openers. Sachin departed and in came his successor, the fiery young, Virat Kohli. The man was in news all over Australia because of his on-field antics in test match series and his famous hundred in Adelaide. Adelaide was the first step of Virat’s “domination in Australia” tale and the Blundstone Arena was about to witness the next chapter of it.

Virat started building his innings in typical Kohli fashion, manoeuvring the field & finding the odd boundaries. In-form Gambhir was equal to the task and played another beautiful innings and completed his 3rd half century in the series including a couple of 90s. The duo together put up a 115 runs partnership before GG got run out on 63. India was on at 201-3 in 27.3 overs and needed another 120 runs in next 12.3 balls in order to be alive in the series.

Kohli, all of a sudden geared himself up and the Virat(beast) mode was on. Those wrists started doing wonders, that NIKE bat was middling every freaking thing and Raina & his were probably the quickest four legs that one would ever see on a cricket field.

35th over of the game, Kohli on 98, one of finest death bowlers going around, Malinga into the attack. What followed was a piece of history that will always haunt Malinga and will always bring a smile on an Indian fan’s face. 1st ball, middle stump yorker, Kohli flicked it along the ground, took a couple and brought up one of the finest centuries in ODI cricket history. 2nd ball, flicked away again, effortlessly for six. 3rd ball, through the covers, four. 4rth ball, a beautiful yorker, doesn’t matter, flicked again through the square leg reason, four more. 5th ball, and again. 6th ball, “here we go again”. 24 runs of the over. Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!

Fittingly enough, Kohli straight drove Malinga’s bowl for 4 and with that, India chased down 321 runs in 36.4 overs. Unreal and unbelievable. That precious smile on VK’s face said it all.

Not to forget Raina’s crucial and quick 40 runs at the end.

With that innings, Kohli announced himself at the international stage. It was a statement, “the king is here and here to rule”. The young boy in me who had dreams of becoming a batter, one day, had found his new batting hero. A hero that he still loves, adores, and respects. Long live the king. Long live his kingdom. 👑