Mumbai: “Selection Day”, the engrossing novel by Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga about an underprivileged rural boy’s struggle to become a national-level cricketer, is now a series on Netflix.
The trailer shows young Mohammad Samad as protagonist Manju bullied into cricket by his father (Rajesh Tailang), confused by the cultural contradictions of a life turn from its roots, and grappling with identity issues.
Without a shred of doubt, this is yet another exceptional performance from the child actor, now well into adolescence who recently impressed in the supernatural horror thriller “Tumbbad” and before that in Rajan Khosa’s “Gattu”.
Young Samad is the face of “Selection Day” as much as Nawazuddin of “Sacred Games”.
Besides Samad and Mahesh Manjrekar, the trailer of “Selection Day” boasts of some very fine acting talent, such as Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajesh Tailang and Geetanjali Kulkarni who played the public prosecutor in Chaitanya Tamhane’s outstanding Marathi film “Court”.
The trailer follows tried and tested torrent of tropes “the cricket aspirant, the domineering father, the enthusiastic coach”. There is also a mention of a missing mother and a divine intervention by Lord Shiva, all of which add up to a brew that promises to keep us watching all through.
By Subhash K Jha
