Mary Kom
Year: 2014
Director: Omung Kumar
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Kumar, Sunil Thapa

The Story

Manipur is a north-eastern state in India; perpetually strife-torn, always in the news for the wrong reasons like curfews and conflicts and still miles away from the so-called Indian collective consciousness. Coming from one of its nondescript towns, a poor farmer’s daughter pursued the sport of boxing. Standing up against the opposition of her own father, braving discrimination from unscrupulous officials and fighting like a tigress in the ring, she rose to become the world champion- not once, not twice but five times. Mary Kom’s life-story is interesting, intriguing and inspiring in equal measures.

Enrolled by her father in an athletics academy, Mary instead decided to take up boxing as her sport. With her passion and dedication, she finally won over her strict, reticent coach and learnt from him the art and science of boxing. Starting with victories in the state and national level tournaments, Mary went on to conquer world championship thrice. Just when her career was at its peak, she decided to get married with her boyfriend Onler, a decision which so disappointed her coach that he angrily warned her that by marrying, she was delivering a knockout punch to her boxing career. When she delivered twin sons and got busy in the daily grind of family life, it almost seemed like her coach’s warning had come true. But her loving, caring and supporting husband encouraged her to return to the boxing ring to compete again. Mary willed herself back into training, got back into competitive shape and despite suffering early setbacks such as being suspended for showing dissent, she finally returned to her winning ways, bringing two more world titles and an Olympic medal.

The Film

The debutant writer-director Omung Kumar should get full credit for first of all bringing this inspirational tale to silver screen and then tmaking it into a pretty good piece of commercial cinema. The first half of the film moves at a fast clip covering Mary’s humble background, her love for family, her hotheadedness, her willingness to walk the extra mile for the sport she loves and her early triumphs despite the lackluster support system. The second half loses pace while depicting her difficult transition to domesticity and even though, the film then picks pace to chart her comeback and ends on an emotional high, the copious melodrama makes that climactic journey tedious.

The cinematography is excellent, be it in capturing the unspoilt natural beauty of North East India or presenting the thrilling boxing bouts. The songs- mostly in background and in the inspirational mould- serve their purpose well but seem one too many.

What really makes this movie watchable is a wonderful set of characters, played by capable actors. Actors playing Mary’s parents, Sunil Thapa playing her coach and Darshan Kumar as her husband deliver superb performances. Priyanka Chopra’s title role is of course the tour de force performance. She throws herself completely into the character and only a hard-nosed critic would be unmoved by her passionate portrayal. The continuity of her makeup and accent sometimes slips up but there is no slip-up in her terrific overall physical makeover. She looks every inch a champion boxer and her every punch seems authentic. It is a tailor-made role and she has given everything to it.

Just like Rakaysh Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Omung Kumar’s Mary Kom tells an inspiring sporting tale in a way that is palatable for the masses. Even if these films might be blamed for presenting fictionalized, romanticized accounts of the respective sportsperson’s life and career, they both have managed to successfully shake up the cricket-jaded Indian minds and make them take notice of sports like athletics and boxing.

Boxing is a brutal physical sport, typically associated with men and machoism. Through her global achievements in that sport and that too after going through the rigors of motherhood, Mary Kom emerges as a socially important icon challenging the gender stereotypes. For that reason alone, the film is worth celebrating!

Alas, in real life this great lady who kept the tricolor flying all over the world with her sporting victories and made many Indians aware that Manipur is an integral part of the India, still awaits the day when her biopic will finally be shown in her home state. The militant outfits have banned its screening in Manipur. This just provides an insight into the kind of challenges she must have faced all her life just to keep her dream alive- the dream of representing India, the dream of winning for India!

Bollywood needs to make many more such films.

Rating

3.5 Stars