Radio Brisvaani
After a cliffhanger-esque ending of the first part — where teenagers Manjunath (Mohammad Samad) and Radhakumar (Yash Dholye) were left at a crossroads — Selection Day is back with six new episodes in the first season. With plenty of questions waiting to be answered — do the brothers finally make it to the fateful selection day? Where is their missing mother? Will Wynberg Academy win the prestigious Harris-Shield trophy? There was enough material for a pacy, emotional, dramatic second half. But sadly, neither are the questions answered satisfactorily, nor does the drama really pick up. As for the emotions, that graph is quite flat.
The story continues with Samad trying to battle his two interests: science, which he loves, and cricket, which he excels at, but doesn’t really like. There are those lingering, conflicting feelings about his sexuality as well. His brother (Dholye) is a tortured soul as he realises that he is not as good as his overbearing father (Tailang) made him out to be. This could have been that David vs Goliath story, where two underdogs come and make their name in the megapolis of Mumbai through the game which the city lives and breathes. But this is not that story.
The various subplots and arcs detract from the main storyline. There’s just too much happening, there’s a school to be saved, expensive cancer treatment to be arranged, and lost honour to be restored. Tailang, who was splendid in the first part, appears slightly distracted, as he juggles being the CEO of a health drink company, managing his sons, and even a romantic interest of sorts. Akshay Oberoi continues being the hapless investor, who is way over his head with backhanded deals in the shady bylanes of aamchi Mumbai. We don’t see enough cricket nor the passion that the game evokes. What we get are cliched dialogues instead. ‘He had to hate the game, to play it’, and ‘Agar log cricket ko ek escape samajhte hain, toh hum kaun hain unke iss sapne ko todne waale’, utters a mellow Mahesh Manjrekar, who plays the disgraced cricket coach, Tommy Sir.
We haven’t had a good young adult drama in the Indian web space, while Selection Day touches upon issues of bonding and brotherhood, peer pressure and overbearing helicopter parents, nothing touches a nerve. The absentee/missing mother angle is barely explored — it could have developed into a deep comment on domestic abuse and violence.
There are some nice moments with Ratna Pathak Shah as the feisty headmistress who feels free to light up a joint to celebrate, and speaks in fluent Marathi with Tommy Sir’s ailing wife, and the local juice waali (played by Amruta Subhash), who partners up with Tailang to start a health tonic enterprise out of his house.
The last few episodes have everything working up to a climactic ending, but instead of resolving the story, everything explodes and combusts, perhaps sowing the seeds for more episodes. Watch, if you are bored of the ongoing IPL, India’s annual cricketing extravaganza.
