In a pivotal scene in panga Jaya Nigham, ex-captain of the Indian women's Kabaddi team who was 32 is struggling to make a comeback says "I am a mother and Mother's don't dream" 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 a child.
To be a mother is to be a constantly roiling highly combustible fusion of ferocious love permanent guilt it's earning anxiousness and a residue resentment at the opportunities lost.
Panga co-written and directed by a Ashvini Iyer Tiwari.
It is the story of a woman so obsessed with Kabaddi that even seven years after she's quit the sport she involuntarily kicks in her sleep.
Marriage and motherhood got in the way of her dream to play for India but Jaya is it outwardly unhappy she has a tender loving relationship with her husband Prashant and her son Adi.
She enjoys the pleasures of domestic city but the thought that she could have been much more knows quietly at her soul like a rat working its way through a hunk of cheese.
She feels keenly the small slights like countless women she's just taken for granted.
Her son doesn't see her relentless hard work either at home or at her railway job after all he says you're only selling tickets.
Jaya sits behind the counter at the railway station and watch his life going by, but when he finds out what star his mother used to be he pushes her to try again and Jaya decides to seize the day she decides to once again take a Panga.
Panga works on the strength of its performances and its writing Ashwini co-writer Nikhil Mehrotra and Nitesh Tiwari, who's also been credited with additional screenplay create a lived-in world with characters who have depth and personality.
Jaya isn't obviously heroic she's torn between her family and her passion and riddled with doubts and insecurities her frustration and vulnerability make her journey more relatable and more triumphant.
It also helps that Kangana Ranaut please Jaya with skill sensitivity and wants.
Watch her in the quieter scenes like the scene in which Jaya going away for training just before she leaves she stops and looks at her own home with longing her uncertainty about her decision is heartbreaking.
All the seen in the hospital when her son is born her expression captures that rush of love that a mother feels so beautifully that it made me tear up this is a terrific actor at the top of her game and yet Kangana doesn't monopolize Panga.
Ashwini gives the other actors equal affection and attention.
Mukesh Chhabra as casting is bang-on.
Punjabi singer actor Jessie Gill is instantly likable as a supportive husband who fights his own limitation.
He's an Indian man with zero training on how to be the primary caretaker so all the things that Jaya would do has routine become big drama including an edible breakfast.
Prashant's struggle is a subtle salute to homemakers whose hard work is rarely celebrated.
At one point Jaya tells Prashant that if she had to make a list of all the things she does to keep their home functional it would fill a book.
Prashant loves his wife but he also sits at the dining table waiting to be served his meals.
Jaya also has a job but the home is her responsibility no questions asked.
This is the norm that Prashant decides to break Jessie plays him with a bumbling sweetness so you see his shortcomings but you also root for him.
Neena Gupta is reliably lovely as Jaya Mom, again the writing is so solid that her character makes a big impression in few scenes in one she's telling joy to also give her credit in press interviews there's such love and pride in her voice and once again Ashwini gently reminds us of the tireless work that mothers do.
It's a full-time job for a lifetime but the scene-stealers of punga are Richa Chadda as Jaya's friend Menu and Yagya Bhasin as her son Adi.
Menu is this tough no-nonsense Kabaddi coach who tells it like it is.
Adi has the wisdom of a grown man but his precociousness never tips into annoying which is a tough balance these two get some of the film's best lines.
They also deliver some of the film's most potent messaging but actually tempers this with humour and lightness thankfully Panga never gets shrimp.
It does however get flat in the second half I think after so many sports films including the dishes of masterful dongle I'm a little fatigued with training montages and matches.
We know that the underdog will eventually win that is the cardinal rule of this Pottsville so directors try different roses to notch up the tension.
Here Ashvini succeeds only partially some will argue that Panga is too sanitized and optimistic that the actual struggle of a mother picking up a career again is much harder of course it is but for now I'll take the warmth and hope that this film offers and I hope you will do.
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