Queen
of Katwe: The Triumph of an Underdog!
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| Image Courtesy: facebook.com/QueenOfKatwe/photos |
Reviewer’s
Thumb Mark
Mira
Nair's film 'Queen of Katwe' a biographical sports drama has all those
ingredients and elements that shall boost your faith and belief that there is
nothing unachievable in this world. You are the master of your failures and
triumphs; choose who you want to be. The story depicts the journey of Phiona
Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga) a Ugandan pre-teen girl living in Kampala slum of
Katwe being spotted by a local Christian missionary Robert Katende (David
Oyelowo) who runs a children's chess club and offers free porridge as part of
his missionary work among the poor and the needy.
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| Image Courtesy: findinsanityinourcrazylife.com |
Madina
Nalwanga and David Oyelowo's characters offers a life full of experiences and
lessons of how winning can become a herculean task and in the journey of
achieving your goal how you get exhausted, torn apart, being accepted,
rejected, feeling joyful, sad, doubtful and even ready to quit. As someone has
aptly said - "Experience is not what happens to a person, but it is what
the person does with what happens to him/her". This Disney movie not only
have lessons for individuals but also for a family on how to be partners in
progress with a member in the family who attempts to tread an unconventional
path.
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| Image Courtesy: pbs.twimg.com |
Mira
Nair's film is based on Tim Crothers
book with the same title with a tagline - "One Girl's Triumphant
Path to Becoming a Chess Champion". It writes about how one day in 2005 in
search of food a slum girl in Katwe along with her brother reached a makeshift
children clubhouse where she finds her mentor who was destined to change her
life forever through the game called chess. Initially, it was free porridge
that brought the children to Robert Katende's club but many of them slowly
started loving the game that resonated their lives of dealing with obstacles
constantly be it poverty, homelessness, ostracism and marginalization. Among
these children Phiona Mutesi emerges as a prodigy to become her country's 'Junior
Champion by the age of eleven and at fifteen, the 'National Champion'. The
first female titled player in her country's history, Phiona now a 'Woman
Candidate Master' dreams of bagging the most elite title for her - 'The
Grandmaster'.
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| The Real Life Star Phiona Mutesi (Image courtesy): 700clubinteractive.cbn.com |
Lupita
Nyong'o the Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress in Steve McQueen's
'12 Years A Slave' (2013) plays the role of Phiona's mother, Harriet. Lupita
Nyong'o has given a stupendous performance as Harriet, a mother who is fiercely
protective of her children as well as is determined to wade through the uncertainties
of her life to ensure food, cloth and a roof for her children. Her life with her children and the events of
their life tugs at your heartstrings.
The
relationship between the coach Robert Katende and the coachee Phiona Mutesi
keeps us awestruck. It's so
inspirational and moving that it reminded me of what Martin Luther King Jr has
once said - "We will err and falter as we climb the unfamiliar slopes of
steep mountains. There will be agonizing setbacks along with creative
advances'.
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| Image Courtesy: theafropolitanmom.com |
Mira
Nair deftly captures the stark reality of the Kampala slum life on reel that
the line that separates the real and the reel diminishes many a time leaving
you with a lump in your throat. I remember meeting Mira Nair at 'The I View
World Film Festival' in New Delhi in the month of March 2016, where some of the
unedited scenes of Queen of Katwe was screened. The audience then in the hall
gave her a standing ovation for coming up with such an inspirational biopic on
Phiona Mutesi. The discussion that followed after the screening was engaging on
the life of people in Kampala where Ms. Nair runs a small film Academy as well.
Mira Nair successfully doesn't limit the story to a family drama but she takes
it further to an international level where she portrays the life and triumph of
a slum girl who becomes her nation's pride. Her film through the story of
Phiona Mutesi raises many pertinent questions on the economic disparity, the
untapped talents among the under privileged class, the system's failure to find
them, encourage them and the poor medical facilities available to a commoner in
her country.
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| Image Courtesy: i.onionstatic.com |
Please
do not miss the closing credits because the film's credit introduces the real
life heroes who has inspired the film alongside each actor and tells us what
they have accomplished until now. In short, Queen of Katwe makes you find the
hidden King and Queen within you and inspire you to pursue your path undeterred
to the goal which you have set for yourself beating all those moves kept by
your opponents on the chess board of life. Remember, in chess, the small one
can become the big one! Be like Phiona Mutesi who can see eight moves in advance!!!
Life
Connoisseur Movie Rating: 4/5
Cast:
Madina Nalwanga (Phiona Mutesi), David Oyelowo (Robert Katende), Lupita Nyong'o
(Nakku Harriet), Martin Kabanza (Mugabi Brian), Taryn Kyaze (Night), Ivan
Jacobo (Young Richard), Nicolas Levesque (Older Richard), Ronald Ssemaganda
(Ivan), Ethan Nazario Lubega (Benjamin), Nikita Waligwa (Gloria), Edgar Kanyike
(Joseph), Esther Tebandeke (Sara Katende)
Genre:
Biographical
Sports Drama
Director:
Mira Nair
Producers:
John Carls, Lydia Dean Pilcher
Based on: The Queen of
Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's
Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster
Screenplay
by:
William Wheeler
Music
by:
Alex Heffes
Cinematography:
Sean Bobbitt
Edited
by:
Barry Alexander Brown
Production
Companies: Walt Disney Pictures, ESPN Films, Cine Mosaic,
Mirabai Films
Distributors:
Walt Disney Studios, Motion Pictures
Release
Date: 7th October, 2016
Duration:
124 Minutes
Language:
English
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