24 frames per second

To be perfectly honest with you, Ghoomer feels more gimmicky than anything else for pretty much its entire running time. There’s a moment towards the end when Anina, a one-handed woman picked as a bowler, steps out to bat because her team still needs a couple of runs to win and she’s the only one left. The English language commentator (AB Sr in a cameo) stands up and speaks in Hindi because, he says, the English language is too understated for this moment. It feels well written, but it doesn’t land like it should, because the film itself has been an intellectual exercise.

The moment is further weighted by a revelation anyone with two brain cells to run together would’ve seen coming – the reason why Anina lost her forearm in an accident is that she nearly collided with a drunk driver — the driver, of course, is her curmudgeonly coach Padam, the man who helped her reinvent herself as a bowler and make it this far. This revelation ought to make this moment work even better, but I’m sitting there thinking, “Come on! How many contrivances do you want to pile one on top of another?”

And then, after the match is over and Anina comes back to see Padam, and he apologizes. It’s played in a very low-key manner, pretty much as you would expect it to play in a Balki film. But as they walk away, he stumbles and holds on to her amputated arm. Then pauses, puts it on her shoulder for support, and they walk away from the camera. They’re both wearing white. And the shot is just unfocused enough that you cannot tell whose arm is holding whose shoulder for support.

I have no idea if it was intentional. But that one shot did more for me than the entire film did.