Shubham Singh’s directorial Penalty is trending on Netflix, the film which is visually stunning with its heart in the right place, finally found its audience and warm appreciation for the well crafted content driven mid budget social drama.The film chronicles an aspiring football player in Lucknow, who dream of playing national’s but he is faced with discrimination as he hails from North-east. The film highlights the racial discrimination faced by the people of Northeast India in their own country.The movie is a combination of social issue and sports, which is never been done before, at least not successfully. People get bullied or left out for a lot of biased issues and the movie addresses it beautifully. There is this underlying dislike and misunderstanding about North-east people, especially in mid-India and the film addresses it beautifully and poignantly.Sports is the unifying element, one shouldn’t look at the state or origin, but the sportsmanship, the heart of the player.It is sad that on one hand we revere Baichung Bhutia, Mary Kom, Sunil Chetri for their contribution to Indian sports but in reality, common people from the Northeast face racial discrimination on a daily basis. ‘Penalty’ highlights this double standard of Indians.The film is visually stunning and well crafted. The characters are itched out with details and performances are at par. The filmmaker has put a lot of hard work and thought into making the film, which shows on screen. And despite the feel-good factor of the film, ‘Penalty’ is a hard hitting drama, which will make you think. Penalty is produced by Nilesh Shakiya and written by Akhilesh choudhary and Sparsh khetarpal
The film stars Lukram Smil, Manjot Singh, Shashank Arora, Kay Kay Menon, Aakash Dabhade, Srishti Jain, Bijou Thaangjam, Mohit Nain and Ashwin Kaushal.