Break Point review: Fascinating deep dive into the making and breaking of India’s greatest tennis doubles pair, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi

The Indian Express. Lee-Hesh. These nicknames are familiar to those who followed tennis in the late 1990s and early 2000s, especially if one was an Indian tennis fan. They, of course, refer to Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, both multiple Grand Slam winners, who did the impossible, proving that Indians could be champions on the tennis world stage.

But as quickly as their indestructible partnership rose in the beginning, it all began to unravel, badly, when they were at their height. The aptly named Zee5 docu-series Break Point (2021), over seven episodes of 30 to 40 minutes, sits down the former comrades for a 'he said, he said' narrative of their partnership over the years. Produced by Earthsky Pictures and directed by filmmaker couple Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari, the series aims to look at and understand what went wrong.

By sitting the two down separately to tell their side of the stories, the truth about what went wrong finally comes out in the open. But even though it’s all there, from the horses' mouths, so to speak, it still feels a lot like a therapy session for couples, done apart. There is still a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding and hurt egos that linger on.

The Tiwaris go back to the beginning, showing us how the two tennis greats were shaped as children, starting their origin stories with their driven fathers, Dr Vece Paes and Krishna Bhupathi, who expected their sons to excel. It sets the stage for what was to happen later when their influences became important at crucial moments in their careers.

From their first pairing in Jakarta, Indonesia, to the politics and drama in playing for India at the Asian Games at Doha, Qatar, in 2006, Break Point takes us through the key moments of the Paes-Bhupathi partnership. Editor Charu Shree Roy amps the drama with the help of footage from old matches as well as visually recreated headlines — the good, the bad and the ugly.

Besides Paes and Bhupathi, the docu-series gets several personalities, both inside and outside the players’ inner circles, to comment on the past. Of course, their families share their journey, but also friends of Paes like RJ Hrishikesh Kannan, and Bhupathi’s like Navroz Udwadia, give insights into their frame of mind at the time.

Their tennis contemporaries and former rivals Todd Woodbrigdge, Mark Woodforde, Jonas Bjorkman, Bob and Mike Bryan all share their opinions on their break-up. Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza, representatives of the generation of Indian tennis that followed, also speak of their experiences; even veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan, in a filmi touch, is interviewed as he once played an exhibition game with the duo.

Sports editors Rohit Brijnath of The Straits Times and Prajwal Hegde of The Times of India, who covered Paes and Bhupathi's matches, offer their take on the dissolution as well.

Paes and Bhupathi’s on-camera confessions are much like their contrasting personalities. At times, Bhupathi, who is often blunt, doesn’t seem to open up enough. And the natural leader Paes, the more outgoing of the pair, still seems to hold a grudge about lost respect. But as events are replayed through them, their families and Bhupathi’s coach Enrico Piperno, tiny decisions are scrutinized and re-examined. The former pair even get emotional on regrets and what-ifs.

The duo acknowledge the tremendous pressure and expectation they had to endure as they rose to be the number one doubles team in the world, winning together twice at the French Open and once at Wimbledon. They also admit that they didn’t handle things well at that time, as they chose their respective camps and coaches over the other.

But their disclosures are cathartic, too, as they open up about the losses that still hurt, include their heartbreak over losing the bronze medal match at the Athens Olympics in 2004. But it’s not all doom and gloom as the duo recount the fun times of their partnership, from their historic rise to how they began using their now-iconic chest bumps to pump each other up during their matches.

The only complaint with the series is that there isn’t an additional episode that brings the two together, face to face, after all this time. Break Point ends on a reflective note by the pair, who are older, wiser, and maybe a little more than contemplative on their complicated legacy.

Tennis is often a cruel sport where the tide can change pretty quickly — inclement weather, a mid-match injury, or a slight distraction can have a say in the final outcome. Break Point takes us back to the extraordinary time when the Paes-Bhupathi doubles pairing was magic and why their split (again and again) was disappointing to Indian fans rooting for them to succeed. It’s a nostalgic trip down the road not taken.

Break Point is now available on Zee5.