Cricket is a true-blue Indian game. Just like cinema, the huge yet crazy fan followings for Cricket…  

Cricket is a true-blue Indian game. Just like cinema, the huge yet crazy fan followings for Cricket and Cricketers are largely based in India. Mandira Bedi, the galm queen of the Indian Cricket World, is back to the silver screen in a full-fledged role in PNC’s “Meerabai Not Out”. Directed by Chandrakant Kulkarni, Meerabai Not Out features Mandira in a no-glam role opposite Eijaz Khan – a famous small screen actor of the K’ serials. The posters and title suggest the movie to be a Cricket based film, but the movie is just about a cricket fanatic who goes to the extremes for cricket. With no A-line casting and absolutely no glam, will Meerabai Not Out succeed in entertaining the audience? Let’s find out!!! Meerabai Not Out is not a take on cricket but about a cricket fanatic and her love story. Meera Achrekar, the friendly girl next door dressed in ethnics, is a maths teacher at the Vishwa Prem School. Being a great cricket enthusiast, she breaths, eats and dreams cricket and in particular about Anil Kumble. More so, it has her solving Math problems using cricket lingo much to the delight of her students. She also has a team named Meera XI in her society with whom she enjoys watching match’s besides training them every evening. Meera is happy with everything that she is blessed with, especially with her passion for cricket. But her family on the other hand is always worried about her matrimony. The quest for the right man and how her passion becomes her worst nightmare, when her engagement breaks, forms the rest of the story. Meerabai Not Out has few of its innings to its favor. The simple family comic drama appeals in most ways except for some parts where it’s a little far-fetched. Like the TV coverage for a group of 11 shouting slogans for Anil being dropped out of a match and why has she to watch every match in the stadium, especially even if it falls on the same day of her engagement? The love story between Meera and Arjun (Eijaz Khan) is not like the present dating type but it makes sense. The movie has an irregular pace and mostly very slow. The music too isn’t attractive and moreover the script provides no much scope for it. Not even one track is worth a mention. Dialogues are well written, interesting and comical. When it comes to performance, Mandira takes the first seat. Mandira covered up from head to toe in a quirky girl next door image is a revelation. She pulls the act with ease and skillfully unfolds a range of emotions. Eijaz Khan does well. He has the perfect look and the buoyancy but needs the right man to steer his talent. Mahesh Manjrekar as the serious and responsible earning member of the family is wonderful. Anupam Kher as the friendly daddy is good as usual. Anil Kumble, the puzzled cricket star about his frequent hiccups, is okay. Overall, Meerabai Not Out is good with few of the innings to its favor. At the box-office, a lot depends on word-of-mouth! Also, the movie might take a hit with audiences not over the grief and pain of the Mumbai terror.  

It Should Be Meerabai Get Out It's often said that cricket and Bollywood are two major passions of…  

It Should Be Meerabai Get Out It's often said that cricket and Bollywood are two major passions of Indians. Director Chandrakant Kulkarni's MEERABAI NOT OUT narrates the story of a cricket enthusiast who goes to the extremes -- even on the day of her engagement -- to watch a game of cricket. But interesting ideas don't necessarily translate into interesting films. MEERABAI NOT OUT suffers because there's not much meat in its script. It's only during the penultimate moments that things begin to move, but that isn't enough to salvage the situation. MEERABAI NOT OUT may give an impression of being a 'cricket film', but it's misleading. It's primarily a love story. In fact, a major part of the screen time is devoted to the love story, which, frankly, lacks the fizz. Mandira and Ejaz Khan acts their part well.On the whole, MEERABAI NOT OUT is a below average fare and deserves to get clean bowled from the theaters in the first day itself !!!!!  

it was a good but i didn,t like it  

it was a good but i didn,t like it 

Meerabai not out was supposed to release a long time back but it didn’t have takers. Now we know…  

Meerabai not out was supposed to release a long time back but it didn’t have takers. Now we know why!<BR><BR> MBNO revolves around Meera (Mandira) who is a single girl heading the cricket team in her colony. She is also a math teacher and the favourite of her students. The other teachers envy her and make fun of her simple, behenji looks. Mahesh Manjrekar plays her brother and her family wants her to get married but cricket is her only passion and she is madly in love with Anil Kumble. A series of events lead to her falling in love with Arjun (Eijaz). She gets a makeover, ditching the specs for lenses and her oiled braid for a layered cut. Anupam Kher is Arjun’s father. The two are all set to get married but then Meera’s passion lands her in big trouble.<BR><BR> Meerabai starts off fairly well and the first half has some funny moments, especially the scene where Meera is compared to Mandira Bedi. Anil Kumble getting hiccups every time Meera remembers him is cute too. Barring the opening track, the music is not happening. The choreography of the song reminded me of a beginners’ dance class, the steps are that lame! The scene where Meera questions a prospective suitor about cricket is great. So in the interval I thought the movie was pretty ok, not as bad as expected.<BR><BR> But the second half proved me wrong. It veered nowhere as it was overstretched and we have seen all the break up and reconciliation stuff many times before. Where did the KBC like quiz show pop up from?<BR><BR> Mandira Bedi is very expressive and has done a good job. Eijaz Khan is not hero material; he is ok in such roles where the focus is not on him. So he would make a good supporting actor. Mahesh Manjrekar and Anupam Kher are good too.<BR><BR> There were barely 5 people present at the 3 pm show at a popular multiplex and two of them were a couple more interested in each other than in the movie! MBNO does not deserve a trek to the theatre; watch it at home if you have nothing better to do. And pick a cricket match over the movie any day. 

What do you say about a comedy that brings cricketer Anil Kumble on screen only to go down with…  

What do you say about a comedy that brings cricketer Anil Kumble on screen only to go down with hiccups?<BR><BR> Every time cricket fan Meera Achrekar (Mandira Bedi) remembers her favourite cricketer, Kumble bursts into hefty hiccups. Just goes to show, you can take Guddi out of our films -- but you can't take our films out of Guddi.<BR><BR> Each time Mandira whines about being in love with cricket and cricketer Anil Kumble to the tycoon who falls in love with her (Eijaaz Khan), she reminds us of Jaya Bhaduri in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's "Guddi", so obsessed with movies and Dharmendra that she can't think straight.<BR><BR> Meera can. If you want to play cricket, you have to think straight. To writer Soumik Sen's credit, he gives Mandira a role to sink her teeth into. Experienced actor and cricket connoisseur that she is, Mandira gets into the groove with lip-smacking relish, abandoning lip gloss and hip-gyrations for rollicking sprints down Mumbai's lanes with the boys of the colony.<BR><BR> Lamentably she isn't required to play much cricket, just talk about it.<BR><BR> This either means that the screenwriter doesn't endorse the zany image of Meerabai as a spunky iconoclast speeding around Mumbai's crowded highway on a two-wheeler without gender care. Or it just means Mandira didn't get time to practice her cricket on the field.<BR><BR> Be as it might, even the climactic cricket game in the chawl compound staged between Mandira's beau and her brother (Mahesh Manjrekar) is perfunctory and more a snatch of a match to bring about the marital match than a breathless display of cricketing skills.<BR><BR> The prevalent mood of "Meerabai Not Out" is one of a plot not fully developed, and yet ripe enough to give out the appetizing aroma of a fruit on the way to ripening.<BR><BR> There is a lived-in flavour of a Marathi household with a harassed brother mumbling curses under his breath at the bus stop, a mother at home who worries constantly about the unmarried and cricket-smitten daughter in the house, a sister-in-law who thinks stealing an evening of paani-puri at the pavement is equivalent to domestic liberation and a well-to-do heart specialist who is so besotted by his cricketer girlfriend that he is willing to forgive her for everything including stealing away from their engagement function for a cricket match.<BR><BR> It doesn't take too long for us to figure out that there's more than a touch of Gurinder Chadha's "Bend It Like Beckham in this instant sporty and sassy version of the inimitable Parminder Nagra's gender-defying love of football in "Bend It Like Beckham".<BR><BR> Parminder had Beckham, Mandira has Kumble. The cultural crossover is clever, though not fully realised. Often you feel the narration under-plays the conflict between what a girl does in life and what she should do. Just because it doesn't want to stretch out its limbs.<BR><BR> Also, there's the disturbing premise that finally Meera needs a man and in this case the man's father (Anupam Kher) to see her dreams past the goal post.<BR><BR> As a desi version of "Bend It Like Beckham", "Meerabai Not Out" is not bad at all. As a showcase for Mandira's cricketing ambitions the narration brings her just about the best role she's likely to get on the side of "Chak De! India".  

Meerabai Not Out is a simple movie, nothing over the top. There is an amount of simplicity and ease…  

Meerabai Not Out is a simple movie, nothing over the top. There is an amount of simplicity and ease throughout the movie. It's tried to bring out the cricket fanatic in us. Ejaz and Mandira have really acted well and there doesn't seem to be a dull moment in the movie. The beginning track, "Hai Rama" itself looks apealing and makes us want to watch the movie. I would also like to add that the acting skills of all the actors right from the little kid to Ejaz have been in sync. Overall I liked the movie for its freshness and different theme, which is offbeat from the usual. 

A C grade joke!  

A C grade joke! 

Mega Flop  

Mega Flop 

Meerabai Bowled Out.Mega Flop  

Meerabai Bowled Out.Mega Flop