An Australian
comedy featuring India, cricket, undying love towards Sachin Tendulkar, and
just like you I thought this is a movie that should not be missed. How wrong
was I. While the film has its heart in the right place, it is the head that
lets it down.
The premise of the story is very promising. When a small town Australian cricket club comprising of some unique characters is given the opportunity to tour India and play in a local tournament, we are made to believe that what lies ahead is a mixture of some good cricket and hearty culture clash. What we get is rather poor cricket, and more of the age old gags about India that have been done to death. Although the film tries to capture Kolkata, Varanasi, and Mumbai, the three places where the matches are held, in all their glory and beauty, it is the characters and the story that just dies on the audience like a cricket match between India and Pakistan being cancelled due to rain.
In this day and age I would have hoped that the film makers would have relied on comedy other than a team member getting an upset stomach or the confusion of whether the head shaking by an Indian means “yes” or “no”. Moreover, a cross-cultural love affair is thrown in for good measure that is simply forced, and the team is made to travel via all possible modes of transports, ranging from trains, trams, and three-wheelers, all desperately brought into the story for reasons that I cannot understand. The most irritating factor remains the “Jai Ho” styled dance number at the end of the film for no rhyme or reason.
I will grant that the film is more than just about cricket or travel. At heart it is about growing up and about re-discovering oneself. But do we really need to sit next to a Sadhu on the banks of Ganga in Varanasi to do that? Or better yet, do we really need a confrontation with a supposedly big obnoxious Bollywood star that results in an impromptu cricket match played with a pink cricket ball used to bring everyone together in the end (trust me it’s no spoiler) in the most absurd fashion ever? NO!
Save Your Legs is a predictable film that misses out on a great opportunity and gets caught on the boundary line trying to be too philosophical when in reality it relies on clichéd comedy to cover up its many faults.
Rating 1.5/5
