Break Point Review: Leander Paes And Mahesh Bhupathi's Doubles-Journey in Tennis Is A Perfectly Balanced Love Story With A Dramatised Breakup (LatestLY Exclusive)

Break Point review: For someone who lived in the '90s, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were two so well-known names who weren't connected to Bollywood or cricket. Something so unheard of at that time! They were the true heroes or the underdogs who made a seemingly elite sport like Tennis a preferred alternative. Even when many didn't know anything about Tennis, they rallied behind these two men and made us feel genuinely proud of being Indians. So for that generation, Break Point is a walk down memory lane we didn't know we wanted to walk down. Mahesh Bhupathi Watched ‘DDLJ’ with Leander Paes ‘multiple Times’, Says Films Were a Stress Buster

The series takes a look at the 'Lee-Hesh' journey from playing their first match together in Jakarta to their differences. Leander Paes was already a star of the Indian Tennis scene when Mahesh Bhupathi arrived. What's deeply satisfying is the way the series unfolds. Ashwini Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari execute it like a love story. So there's a meet-cute, a honeymoon period, early signs of discontent, evident cracks, breakup, and the aftermath. The sequences are so neatly stacked together that you become a part of their story. Tiwari's are great storytellers and that extends to documentaries as well.

In India, biopics on real-life characters are handled very amateurishly where the need to make a hero out of a man overrides the person's career highs and lows. Breakpoint manages to steer clear of that narrative style which makes it an interesting watch. The series explores celebrates their successes, their bond, and also their distances. It explains how close Paes and Bhupathi were at one point in time and how they aren't anymore. Moreover, the series is pacy enough and attempts to justly put across the pros and cons of both the players. We Created a Brotherhood: Leander Paes on His Successful Partnership with Mahesh Bhupathi

Check out the trailer of Breakpoint

Another plus is the way episodes are set. All of them end with a cliffhanger which creates a lot of interest. Everything we know about Paes-Bhupathi's rivalry is through the press. Break Point gives a glimpse of what was going on in the minds of the two people when things were going south in terms of their bonding. The first episodes threaten to lean towards Leander Paes more putting Bhupathi at a disadvantage but it later recovers. Despite being a docu-series, it moves like a movie and thus drama is quite high. That works in its favour in parts.

But there are certain things that do put you off a bit. For one, having Amitabh Bachchan in the initial episodes made no narrative sense as he wasn't adding anything to the story. Only when his part was explained in episode four do you understand why he was included. The Paris incident when Bhupathi didn't travel with Paes (SPOILER!) without informing the latter, never gets explained. The fact that Bhupathi has always been an introvert who likes to keep his emotions in check has some bearings on his story getting submerged in Paes' narrative. 'Hesh's side needed to be explored more.

Yay!

-Fantastic execution

-perfectly balanced narrative

-moves like a love story

Nay!

-a little too much drama

-Unexplained sequences

Final Thoughts

Break Point is a remarkable attempt to answer the oft-asked question 'What went wrong between India's Tennis aces Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi?' The docu-series streams on Zee5.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 01, 2021 09:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).