Panga

In a pivotal scene in Panga, Jaya Nigam, ex-captain of the Indian women's kabaddi team, who at 32, is struggling to make a comeback, says: Main ek ma hoon aur ma ke koi sapne nahi hote hain. Every mother understands the specific hurt in this sentiment. Because every mother, irrespective of age, income bracket and background makes immense personal sacrifices to raise her child.

PANGA is the story of a mother trying to fulfil her dreams. Jaya Nigam (Kangana Ranaut) is a pro at Kabaddi. She slowly rises and also becomes the captain of the Indian Kabaddi team. She is meanwhile married to Prashant (Jassie Gill) and gets pregnant just before she is to go for a major tournament.

Jaya Nigam (Kangana Ranaut) is a world-class Kabaddi player who gets a job in the Railways under the sports quota and later kind of loses her identity under the realities of being a wife and a mother. She plans on making a comeback to the game at the age of 32.

The story revolves around the catchphrase of "every mother deserves a second chance!" We have Jaya Nigam (Kangana Ranaut) who once led the India Women's National Kabaddi Team and now is just any other mother. She's living with the burden of what she could've made of her life and what she instead chose.

Every Kangana Ranaut film release of late is an event-quite an achievement by itself given the disproportionate marketing attention and spends reserved for male stars and their films. This once too the excitement at the media preview for Panga was quite palpable.

You could blame the universe for conspiring to name a film starring Kangana Ranaut as Panga; or perhaps it was a conscious decision taken by the makers once the actor came on board. Whatever may be the case, Panga is an honest, relatable film that will stay with you long after you leave the theatre.

'I'd like to thank my family' is an oft-heard line in a winner's speech. Director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's sweet and sunny Panga is a paean to the sentiment. It's also about a woman wanting to feel joy in her existence outside the roles and responsibilities she is conditioned to believe are hers alone and discover how challenging the pursuit of dreams can be even if one enjoys a solid support system.

Women trying to get back to work after becoming wives and mums is an issue Bollywood hasn't bothered to explore in any detail. Panga's protagonist is a former kabaddi player whose life has been subsumed by the tedium of everyday domesticity and jobbery.

She was the captain of the Indian kabaddi team with an international career awaiting her before the birth of a premature baby prompted her to turn her back on the game she loves. Jaya Nigam did not have in-laws pressuring her or a husband bullying her: she simply did what she did because it did not occur to her that there was an option and, as her son later points out, it did not occur to her husband to share her load.

Panga works despite itself. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's third feature after Nil Battey Sannata and Bareilly Ki Barfi unfolds as a first draft of another, more layered, movie about a woman getting back to the workplace she abandoned for marriage and motherhood.

When Jaya's passion for kabaddi is reignited, she decides to make a comeback to the sport, at the age of 32. But will it be an easy ride back into the national team, now that she is riddled with domestic responsibilities as a mother and wife.

One Word Review... Panga: HEARTWARMING. A content-driven film that's rich in merits... Emotional, progressive, entertaining... Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's best work to date... #Kangana is flawless, an award-worthy act... #Richa, #Jassie, #YagyaBhasin excel.

Jaya Nigam (Kangana Ranaut) is a 32-year-old ex Indian Kabaddi champion - captain of the Indian Kabaddi team, leading a happily married life in the city of lakes - Bhopal. Her husband Prashant (Jassie Gill) is an engineer and Jaya works in railways (the job she probably got due to her credits as her achievements as a Kabaddi player).

Rooted in the real world, Panga features a glamorised Kangana Ranaut in the role of a retired kabaddi player who returns to the sport after a seven-year hiatus and inevitably runs into a series of challenges. The film's central premise has undeniable potential but it would have come to naught had the treatment not been as sure-footed.