Mary Kom review

STRENGTH OF A WOMAN

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

On the rugged surface, Mary Kom is a formulaic sports biopic; it plays by the ropes and rarely surprises you. Underneath, Mary Kom is a film about a woman fighting against the disadvantageous state of being a woman in today’s India. Her fight in the ring is with her opponents. Her fight outside is with the Indian society. As the former, it’s an average film. As the latter, the film is a knockout.

Debutant director and long-time production designer Omung Kumar chose the life of Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom to be the subject of his film. The five-time World Amateur boxing champion is a ripe for a cinematic depiction.

I have always found something amiss in Priyanka Chopra’s performances. While I was sufficiently enamored by her turns in Kaminey (2009) and Barfi (2012), in her other films it’s always Priyanka Chopra playing herself playing a character. This time, she plays Mary Kom with ferocity and spirit. Her effort is palpable. She has the method right, for the very first time. What’s more, her performance has soul. I do feel she didn’t disappear into the character completely, which has always been an issue with her but hey, it’s not like I can do it better. When the emotions are in place, the performance is a winner.

Another performance I admired was that of Darshan Kumar who plays her love interest. Apart from his character being likable, he lends some refreshing sincerity to the role. Sadly, none of the other supporting performances shine. The coach played by Sunil Thapa is unable to move you. I wish more screen time was given to her parents and carried forward the sub-plot into the second half.

The first half of the film covers Mary’s rise from a novice to a pro. The interval occurs when she gets married. Seemingly, her career has ended. This is when things get interesting. In a career-driven woman’s life, marriage is indeed the intermission and the second half, or should I say round two, begins. You could argue that the film, disappointingly, does not culminate into the grand finale of the 2012 London Olympics (where she won the bronze and that wouldn’t be filmy ending). For me, the film wasn’t about which tournament she wins; it was now about her comeback. Her chance to prove she can be both a mother and a boxer. There are effective scenes where she has to balance her life. Her tournament is in a week but her child is ill and she has her priorities in place. If only the climax wasn’t contrived.

On the downside, the film plunges into melodrama intermittently, especially during the ending. The music of the film is a total letdown, especially when it doesn’t make more use of Mary Kom’s native state of Manipur. I wonder why “Creative Director” Sanjay Leela Bhansali didn’t create some tunes for his own production. The film is also shamelessly jingoistic, especially when it literally asks you to stand up in respect for the national anthem as it ends. In hindsight, I do find this audacious idea of signalling the audience to leave strangely awesome.

Those who didn’t appreciate Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) will also find this film to be meandering, devoid of structure. They will find it both over-packed and undercooked. I’m always on the look out for structure in a screenplay but it is only a biopic where I don’t pay heed to it. A biopic is about a lifetime and we all know that none of our lives have the same structure. There is a beginning, middle and an end but there are multiple beginnings, middles and endings in one lifetime. It’s called free will for a reason; it isn’t bound by an automated system. Although outside of these constantly changing patterns, there is a definite cohesiveness to the macrocosm.

Both of these films, and every other biopic, often criticized for their lack of structure are absolutely unfounded. In fact, the film worshipped by critics as the best boxing film ever made, Raging Bull (1980), has a looser structure than Rocky (1976) or Million Dollar Baby (2004) but it is definitely more cohesive and all encompassing. More like life and less like a film. If you want just one reason why this is a lesser film than Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, it’s because it’s more of a film.

These mainstream films are also attacked for casting popular actors instead of native ones. Milkha could have been played by a Sikh munda and Mary could have been played by a Manipuri lass. Paan Singh Tomar (2012) seems to be better structured with just the right amount of ingredients but I’ll take the films that make these stories accessible to the public, including the showy actors.

If you want just one reason why Mary Kom works, it is solely because it tells Indian women that life does not end after marriage. About time people knew motherhood does not end careers. In fact, it points out how Mary has become twice as strong after giving birth. Mary Kom is rightfully nicknamed Magnificent Mary. Her contribution to India is magnificent indeed when you look at the medals. The film Mary Kom captures that but it also captures her magnificent contribution to alter the perception of women in India. After I exited the theater, my sister asked me if I noticed that even a strong woman like Mary couldn’t take the labor pains. Seems like I need to learn a lot more about women.

Mary Kom has its weaknesses but its strengths outweigh them and ultimately win them over. I would recommend this film to be seen, not as much like a film about Mary Kom but as a film about an Indian woman who fights.