Before going for MARY KOM this Friday, I had four positives in mind about the attempt made, giving it a finer edge in comparison to a few recent biographical movies coming from Hindi Cinema.
Firstly it’s a biopic made in an Industry which doesn’t like to venture in this particular genre in terms of commercial cinema and that too talking about the life of a woman, which is even a rarer attempt by the makers unarguably.
Secondly it’s supposed to be a sports movie which again is a genre rarely chosen by our reputed directors and that too focusing on Boxing, a much lesser followed sport than Cricket, Hockey, Athletics or Wrestling in India.
Thirdly and most importantly its not a biopic of an old person, who had done it many decades ago. On the contrary it’s a film made on the life of a talented sportswoman, rather a mother, who is still young at 31 and still kicking to go further in her achievements fighting many more competitions coming ahead in the next years. And one seldom gets to see a biopic of a person who is this young and still active in his or her particular field representing the country all over the world, so proudly.
In cinematic terms, the project also had a worth mentioning strong merit of being the debut directorial film of a highly experienced and known artist Omung Kumar who began his career as an anchor almost two decades before and then remained associated with numerous reputed projects as a Production Desinger/Art Director including films like BLACK and SAAWARIYA.
So having these four positive points in mind and one negative one about the unnecessary glamourization of an important bio-pic, featuring Priyanka Chopra, I was excited to watch the film, only to get disappointed to a much larger extent than feared, witnessing the dismal attempt quite sadly.
But before moving on to the review, I would like to clearly mention that this is a just an honest analysis of the movie made on the life of the highly respected sportswoman of our country titled MARY KOM and not in any way pointing towards the iconic figure or her majestic achievements at all.
The film begins with a fine opening sequence shuttling between the present and past of a pregnant woman being taken to the hospital by her husband, amongst the tension spread in the city due to the revolting groups. The pretty weak ‘boxing training’ scenes coming next, straight away remind you of the masterpiece MILLION DOLLAR BABY revolving around another brave lady boxer, directed by the maestro Clint Eastwood. And then as it progresses further one feels truly amazed to see everything happening so easily in a pure filmy manner, unable to move or impress the viewer neither emotionally nor excitingly.
In fact some poor choices made in the supporting cast (like Mary’s mother and her coach), too many below average songs coming repeatedly, uninspiring fight sequences and a quite lifeless direction by Omung, completely ruins the whole excitement felt in the beginning with a clear indication of the film being nothing more than a mediocre attempt dealing with an the important genre of bio-pics unfortunately.
In other words, this is not anything even close to a realistic biographical movie, but a mere commercial project eying for a quick killing at the box office getting some instant attention and few claps here and there en-cashing the national spirit. For instance, one wonders why we always tend to go overboard with a filmy execution of all training sequences in such a film (along with a typical background song) and also what can you say about the vision followed in a sports movie when in one of its international fight sequences, a German coach hits his own reputed contestant in anger (on her head), while she is coming back to him after losing the bout. Moreover I strongly don’t think the talented lady’s real life had been as easy as depicted in the film with everything happening on its own without any major hassles or clashes.
Giving the actual truth, I remember only one impressive scene in the entire film when Mary apologizes to the federation manager and then few good moments towards the end with another Bollywoodish kind of climax fight, ending with the national anthem being played at full length (asking people to get up from their seats) which ideally should have been avoided to end it on some different kind of inspiring cinematic note.
In short, I deeply respect the exceptional & unbelievable kind of achievements made by the brave Indian sportswoman MARY KOM, both in her personal life as a mother and in the sports career as a boxer. But I am unable to praise this too plain & filmy biopic made on her extraordinary life in any of its department be it cinematography, background music, performances or direction, despite the earnest attempts made by Darshan Kumaar (as Mary’s husband) and Priyanka Chopra (who again was a wrong choice made for the role, as predicted by many).
Hence you can go for it as an informational film, to know more about the pride of our nation, the fearless MARY KOM, who is still ready to win many more fights in the next Olympics too. But not as any great inspiring biographical movie doing any kind of acceptable justice to the subject matter here, putting it honestly.
Rating : 2.5 / 5 (Including 0.5 just for the brave choice of attempting a bio-pic of an extraordinary woman, breaking the set pattern of Bollywood)
