I am sure just like any cinema lover; you too would expect nothing short of a masterpiece, when one of the most renowned sportswomen from the country is chosen as a subject for a biopic. But, what art director Omung Kumar’s directorial debut ‘Mary Kom’ turns out to be is just an excuse of making a film on a famous personality just for earning some brownie points. Well, what Mr. Kumar forgot in the process was establishing the protagonist herself in the very first 15-20 minutes of the film.
The venerated Manipuri boxer Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom aka MC Mary Kom’s amazing exploits certainly merit a feature film, given her inspiring journey from Kangathei, a small village in Manipur, to winning a bronze medal at the London Olympics in 2012. But the biopic doesn’t do justice to her many achievements.
The film starts off with a flashback showing a pregnant Mary Kom (Priyanka Chopra) struggling with her labour pains along with her husband Onler (Debutant Darshan Kumar) trying to reach a hospital for a safe delivery; CUT – the movie jumps to a young Kom ransacking through ruble after a riot in Manipur, where she finds a single boxing glove and is instantly attached to it. CUT – we see a young PC getting into fights with boys on the street and chasing them out of their shoes trying to get a swing at them.
Such kind of choppy editing never lets the character connect with the audience, thus even when she’s making a case for herself as being a fighter who wants to learn boxing it seems as though Priyanka is trying too hard to convince how desperate she is to break someone’s nose.
The coach of Mary Kom is played by Sunil Thapa, and he manages to do a good job by constantly maintaining a constipated grumpy look throughout the film, even when he is encouraging his beloved student, whom he loves to hate. After showing a few training sequences, the audience is left flabbergasted when Kom manages to win a championship in her very first outing, (Oh! not forgetting the fact that she takes of a huge goon on the streets in a fight to survive for 45 seconds to earn Rs 300 for every 15 seconds… Reminds you of a friendly neighbourhood superhero? Well, it doesn’t end well here either) CUT – PC aka Kom is shown taking a Prega News Kit test, while using Iodex to relive her sore muscles and of course, using a lot of Tata Salt in her meals, now here are some Marketing 101 lessons for all the media buyers out there.
Chopra does a good job of bringing out the physical transformation of Kom’s personality, but there’s more to it than simply showcasing well toned biceps. She shines when she has to demonstrate Mary Kom’s state of mind when she puts her rising career on hold to bring up her twins. But only an average performance doesn’t make a film, does it? Overall, Mary Kom’s storytelling is all over the place and it’s sad that such a great sporting personality hasn’t been given the treatment on the silver screen that she deserves.
If the makers were too bothered about running over a runtime of two and a half hours, then sorry to say it’s the biggest blunder they have made on this venture, let alone not allowing the audience the chance to go back to the theatres for a repeat watch.
The fact that the film has been relieved of entertainment tax in the country, will only get audiences filling screens for the first three days based on the buzz and hype around the film, but expecting this movie to set the cash registers ringing is as farfetched a thought as Sanjay Leela Bhansali going on record drawing parallels to Hillary Swank’s award winning performance in the Clint Eastwood helmed 2001 release ‘Million Dollar Baby’.
