Ghoomer - The Persistent Struggle of a Differently Abled Cricketer | Jeevesh Gupta

No one could ever imagine that an amputee could play cricket and bowl with one hand. What is only needed is the idea to impregnate your mind and nothing would be impossible. The movie actually brings out the real meaning of “differently abled”. We all are in one or the other way enabled differently. We just need to dream and one sense will replace the other, the mind will drive the body and the body will conquer the dream! The film Ghoomer is a writing on the wall that all they need is empathy and not sympathy. All they need is the kick, hunger, drive and they can get the ball to the moon and back.

The film clearly demonstrates that the only disability lies in our mind and if that is enabled, we all can do everything same way or in a way, a little different. The film never goes off the string of empathy and keeps pushing the differently abled female protagonist to transform herself into a one handed bowler from being a batsman after losing her right hand in an accident. It’s not just her coach who ridicules her to finally motivate her through the entire script but also she who doesn’t accept any sympathy at any point and never lets the fire extinguish within her. Whether it’s the coach or her boyfriend, she gives it back to both when they show their sympathy and treat her as a dependent. The film not just demonstrates the increasing woman power (high time that society accepts them in every possible role) but also the intricate relationship between a guru and a shishya. The teacher never gives up and the student never gives in.

For decades, Indian Cinema has shown disability mostly in negative light – disability as punitive, disability as dependence, disability as social maladjustment and as disequilibrium. Ghoomer breaks lot of negative stereotypes attached to disability. The female cricketer whose hand gets amputed in an accident refuses to accept any sympathy from her boyfriend. She at the same time, fights it out by clearing a densely forested patch of land outside her trainer’s house to finally roll a cricket pitch to practice bowling with one hand and learn the art of changing the pace of deliveries whenever required and also spinning the ball. She just wouldn’t give up using all possible heavy equipment including the sickle and the pitch roller absorbing all the ridiculing comments her coach hurls at her to test her perseverance and mental strength. The role played by her grandmother is also stellar as she does not loose even an iota of faith in her as a cricketer even after she loses one hand.

I remember myself playing Holi for few hours with a blindfold but I always had the option of opening my eyes. I could open my eyes at the slightest sight of discomfort. For others at the blind school, that option wasn’t there but Anoop and many others still conquer the cycle and many still manage to throw the ball at the wickets and get the batsman bowled out. All they want is to be treated like other “abled” human beings and not at extreme ends of the spectrum – as gods or as cursed due to their deeds in their previous birth.

The way the visually impaired walk on crowded Indian streets finding their way. The way the wheel chaired throw the shot put on the field and archery is done with the feet. The way the deaf and mute beautifully play with their fingers and read the lips flawlessly. We all have our very own “Ghoomer” just depends when we decide to go looking for it.

(Author: Jeevesh Gupta)