Shillong: Mary Kom, the movie featuring the world boxing champion, MC Mary Kom from the little known Kom tribe of Manipur, currently showing in Bijou and Gold Cinema ran to a packed house on Friday and Saturday.
Despite some harsh reviews by film critics the crowd seemed to love the movie because there is nothing cerebral about it. It’s a movie that depicts the rare grit of a girl from a humble family background who worked her way to attaining her dreams despite overwhelming odds.
This fighting spirit of Mary Kom is what draws viewers, especially women audiences, to the halls. Mary Kom has already raked in Rs 8.3 crore in the last two days (Friday & Saturday) countrywide. Ironically the people of Manipur will not be able to view the biopic of their own boxing icon because Hindi movies are banned there by militant outfits.
“We will be watching the reviews and listening to what other people have to say about the movie or we will have to watch it elsewhere, out of Manipur,” exclaimed a sports enthusiast. Mary Kom the movie is being avidly discussed over social network sites.
While there are critics galore from the region who feel that Bollywood should have used a North Eastern face to play the role of MC Mary Kom, others argue that Priyanka Chopra has done absolute justice to her role. It’s not easy for a Bollywood star to spend quality time trying to adapt to the real life lived by Mary Kom, what with cooking, making Iromba chutney and looking after twin kids, and then practising her boxing yet again after the birth of her twins.
It helps that Mary Kom has a doting husband, Onler, a footballer, who sets aside his own ambitions, agrees to look after the twins so that his wife can fly high and realise her dreams. This is a lesson for the Indian male. After the birth of the twins Mary Kom who had already won world championships, began to lose hope of every returning to her first love- boxing. Onler made that possible.
Born Chungneizang Mangte, Mary Kom the five-time world boxing champion which include the silver medal she won for India in the last Olympics, has put Indian firmly on the map as far as this sport is concerned. She is an inspiration for women worldwide.
When Mary Kom faces her aggressive German opponent Sasha in an international arena she also received news that one of the twins has a hole in the heart and had to be operated immediately. A dispirited Mary Kom took several hits only to come back and deal her winning blows even as her child recovers magically.
Priyanka Chopra’s punches fill the screen with real emotions. Chopra has proved her prowess to do any role with elan. Her training under her coach, M Narjit Singh (Sunil Thapa) in Manali was rigorous and punishing to say the least. It was Coach Singh who changes her name from Chungneizang, which he thought was a mouthful, to Mary Kom. Under his watch Mary makes it to the world stage.
The movie brings out the ugly side of Indian Sports – in this case the Indian Boxing Federation and its corrupt officials who pocket much of the money meant for the pugilists and make them live on skimpy meals like banana and water apart from allegations of sexual harassment by female pugilists.
It is sheer determination on the part of sportspersons that they win medals for the country despite the shabby treatment meted out by the Sports bureaucracy. If this movie can bring some change in the world of sports administration it would have achieved a momentous objective.
For Priyanka Chopra who speaks ‘shudh’ Hindi it must have been quite a challenge to speak the “kaccha” Hindi which people from the north eastern region dabble in, complete with a strong mother tongue pull. Federation is pronounced “federason” making it so Mary Kom like. The make-up was extraordinary. Priyanka wore the Mary Kom hairstyle throughout – pigtails. Her face was ruddy with freckles and pimple marks that a sport like boxing leaves you with.
In all, Mary Kom is a good movie and certainly ‘paisa wasool.’ The audience of Shillong seemed happy with what they got, judging by the post movie discussions and the huge rush for the matinee show.