Sunday 7 September 2014

Film Review - Mary Kom




Of Guts And Glory

Film: Mary Kom
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Kumar, Sunil Thapa
Directed by: Omung Kumar
Duration: 2 hrs 3mins
Rating:  * * *

Mary Kom is supposed to be a biopic of India’s most popular lady boxer but what we get is a highly dramatized version of her life story. Gandhi was a biopic but Mary Kom the film is not, it fictionalizes many episodes and a fair amount of it is a figment of the writer’s imagination.

Those grievances aside, you still come out feeling reasonably satisfied and that is because even if it is exaggerated, someone has at least told the inspiring story of a sportsperson and that too a lady who fought against all odds to be on top of the world, Mary Kom is a five time Women's World Amateur Boxing Champion not to mention several other laurels she has won including an Olympic medal. 

From her humble beginnings in Manipur as a farmer’s daughter, her father doesn’t quite approve of his daughter’s love for boxing. Mary (Priyanka Chopra) was known as Chungneijang till her coach Narjit Singh (Sunil Thapa) christens her as M.C Mary Kom. With grit, determination and guidance from her coach, she makes it to the top in quick time. The screen play rushes through those moments in the first half. She marries a local footballer Onler (Darshan Kumar) and that is when the equation with her coach also falls apart. He sees great potential in her and as sure that marriage will be the end of her career. That almost happens when she gets pregnant and has to answer the call of domestic duty. 

But thanks to the support of her husband and her doggedness, Mary makes a comeback and made sacrifices in her personal life. 

The film also attempts to highlight the plight of sportspersons in the country who are at the mercy of many scoundrels who run the sports federations. From a sports point of view, there is hardly any mention about what Mary’s strengths are as a boxer, most of the fights are rushed and the ones that are not, are edited like a music video.  And why do they have to show the opponent always playing dirty tricks? Here it’s a German boxer and it is implied that she doesn’t play by the rules. The climax is also a cop out with drama in full throttle – Mary is fighting the world championship when her little son is being operated upon at the same time. It gels well in Manmohan Desai films of yore but not in a biopic. 

The problem with taking cinematic liberties is that as the audience, you never know if a particular incident is true or it is just the writer’s imagination going wild. There are some smartly crafted scenes, like the episode in the bus where a father-daughter encounter Mary without knowing who she is.

It helps that apart from Priyanka Chopra, the rest of the cast is unknown and it works in its favor because they play their roles with conviction. Though Priyanka doesn’t have any remote resemblance with Mary, she pulls out all the stops and in every scene, she is believable.  

All the blemishes apart Mary Kom is still an exceptional story of an underdog who achieved what she set out to and for that, it is worth a watch.

Published in The Navhind Times, Goa on 7th Sept 2014 

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