Aravind Adiga’s novel now a Netflix series
Pema Khandu, Rijiju and Khan’s Selection Day, a novel by Booker Prize-winner Aravind Adiga about an underprivileged rural boy’s struggle to become a national-level cricketer, is now a series on Netflix.
The trailer shows young Mohammad Samad as protagonist Manju bullied into cricket by his father (Rajesh Tailang), confused by cultural contradictions and grappling with identity issues.
This is yet another exceptional performance from the child actor, now well into adolescence who recently impressed in the supernatural horror thriller Tumbbad and before that in Rajan Khosa’s Gattu.
Samad is the face of Selection Day as much as Nawazuddin Siddiqui is of Sacred Games.
Besides Samad and Mahesh Manjrekar, the trailer of Selection Day boasts of some fine acting talents, such as Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajesh Tailang and Geetanjali Kulkarni who played the public prosecutor in Chaitanya Tamhane’s outstanding Marathi film Court.
The trailer follows the tried and tested trope of “the cricket aspirant, the domineering father, the enthusiastic coach”. There is also a mention of a missing mother and a divine intervention by Lord Shiva, all of which add up to an interesting brew.