I want to be like you, an awestruck Hetal tells the Japanese sumo wrestler Taoshi, who is touring her city of Kolkata.
Not easy, Taoshi tells Hetal in broken English.
Hetal replies that her life is not easy anyway.
Hetal (Shriyam Bhagnani) has only ever known challenges. Overweight since childhood and made painfully aware of it, Hetal has gained enough confidence to master judo but not enough to leap over the hurdle faced by women her age: marriage.
Sumo, then, offers the opportunity to avoid the demands of her mother Sudha that Hetal get hitched. Sudha (Anubha Fatehpuria) is horrified when Hetal picks sumo as an instrument of self-discovery. There is something about this contact sport that appeals to Hetal. After all, it is a sport in which opponents can be defeated through sheer body mass.
Jayant Rohatgi’s Hindi film Sumo Didi is based on pioneering female sumo wrestler Hetal Dave. Elements of Hetal Dave’s life have been fictionalised by screenwriter Nikhil Sachan, developing a story by him, Akash Chawla and Arunava Joy Sengupta.
The Zee5 release is the latest sports biopic that does not offer anything new but benefits from a likeable heroine, affable characters and sensitivity about the ambitions of women. Sumo Didi follows Hetal through despondency as well as determination.
Her physiotherapist and best friend...