I cannot praise highly enough, the power and execution of Priyanka Chopra's performance in this movie.
As the title character, Ms Chopra swept me away with the sheer passion, dedication, and grit she brought to this portrayal: a real woman boxer who won five world championships and returned after retirement birthing twins to claim a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Priyanka makes you forget she's an actress – in "Mary Kom" you will believe she IS the athlete.
Taking on this challenging role was courageous, in a male-hero dominated industry where, even today, it's the men who are expected to 'carry' all big commercial cinema. Where even the top heroines – naturally including Priyanka Chopra herself, who co-stars in many of the biggest of the biggies, such as both the hugely successful "Krrish" and "Don" franchises – rarely get opportunity to do much more than 'look pretty and dance a bit'. This is, happily, evolving somewhat with the relative commercial success of heroine-centric films such as Kangana Ranaut's "Queen" (2014), Vidya Balan's "Kahaani" (2012), Priyanka's own "Fashion" (2008), and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's "Provoked" (2007). Yet it is a sad fact that, even today, the much vaunted '200 Crores Club' and even the '100 Crores Club' blockbusters are male star vehicles, every last one.
Against this industry backdrop, I salute Priyanka Chopra even more for not just taking on, but so boldly succeeding with, such an inherently 'unglamourous' role.
All credit to Ms Chopra aside, however ... the "Mary Kom" movie as a whole is frustrating.
It's as though, having committed themselves to making a movie about the real-life boxer Mary Kom, the filmmakers then found themselves not having a clue what to say about the woman.
The coach in the film (Sunil Thapa, who manages a solid performance despite the poor writing) repeatedly tells his boxer and the audience to "Focus! Focus! Focus!" Yet "focus" is exactly what this script (story & screenplay credited to Saiwyn Qadras) completely fails to do. The lackluster music (Shashi Suman) and uncertain direction (débutant director Omung Kumar) do not help.
There were so many potential story lines here which could have been developed into a uniting theme: the physical isolation and political unrest unsettling Mary's home state, Manipur; a young woman's struggle against family and community expectations to walk a non-traditional path; any woman's challenge to balance career and family; just to name a few. And, in fact, several of these themes are suggested ... only to be inexplicably dropped or left hanging. Forget the triumph of last year's groundbreaking ad brilliantly executed biopic "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", which transcended the personal story of its athlete to present a broader message of societal healing in the aftermath of communal tragedy. "Mary Kom" not only fails to convey any broader meaning, this movie fails to ever settle on any one particular thing to be learned from this one woman's life. Here, what happens just, well, happens. Limply. The filmmakers' lack of direction and focus make everything that happens in this woman's life seem just too ... well, easy. There is no sustained conflict, no driving or sustained challenge for the character to overcome. The would-be climax of the film comes across as cheap melodrama which left the audience emotionally unengaged. The film's end (at an odd place, well before what I would have considered the natural highlight of the woman's career) came through 'flat' and unsatisfying.
Weirdly, I came out of the "Mary Kom" movie less inspired by Mary Kom's life ... than by "A"-list actress Priyanka Chopra's real-life courage and hard work in enacting this role.
Seven stars, STRICTLY on the basis of Priyanka Chopra's powerful knock-'em-dead performance.
As the title character, Ms Chopra swept me away with the sheer passion, dedication, and grit she brought to this portrayal: a real woman boxer who won five world championships and returned after retirement birthing twins to claim a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Priyanka makes you forget she's an actress – in "Mary Kom" you will believe she IS the athlete.
Taking on this challenging role was courageous, in a male-hero dominated industry where, even today, it's the men who are expected to 'carry' all big commercial cinema. Where even the top heroines – naturally including Priyanka Chopra herself, who co-stars in many of the biggest of the biggies, such as both the hugely successful "Krrish" and "Don" franchises – rarely get opportunity to do much more than 'look pretty and dance a bit'. This is, happily, evolving somewhat with the relative commercial success of heroine-centric films such as Kangana Ranaut's "Queen" (2014), Vidya Balan's "Kahaani" (2012), Priyanka's own "Fashion" (2008), and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's "Provoked" (2007). Yet it is a sad fact that, even today, the much vaunted '200 Crores Club' and even the '100 Crores Club' blockbusters are male star vehicles, every last one.
Against this industry backdrop, I salute Priyanka Chopra even more for not just taking on, but so boldly succeeding with, such an inherently 'unglamourous' role.
All credit to Ms Chopra aside, however ... the "Mary Kom" movie as a whole is frustrating.
It's as though, having committed themselves to making a movie about the real-life boxer Mary Kom, the filmmakers then found themselves not having a clue what to say about the woman.
The coach in the film (Sunil Thapa, who manages a solid performance despite the poor writing) repeatedly tells his boxer and the audience to "Focus! Focus! Focus!" Yet "focus" is exactly what this script (story & screenplay credited to Saiwyn Qadras) completely fails to do. The lackluster music (Shashi Suman) and uncertain direction (débutant director Omung Kumar) do not help.
There were so many potential story lines here which could have been developed into a uniting theme: the physical isolation and political unrest unsettling Mary's home state, Manipur; a young woman's struggle against family and community expectations to walk a non-traditional path; any woman's challenge to balance career and family; just to name a few. And, in fact, several of these themes are suggested ... only to be inexplicably dropped or left hanging. Forget the triumph of last year's groundbreaking ad brilliantly executed biopic "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", which transcended the personal story of its athlete to present a broader message of societal healing in the aftermath of communal tragedy. "Mary Kom" not only fails to convey any broader meaning, this movie fails to ever settle on any one particular thing to be learned from this one woman's life. Here, what happens just, well, happens. Limply. The filmmakers' lack of direction and focus make everything that happens in this woman's life seem just too ... well, easy. There is no sustained conflict, no driving or sustained challenge for the character to overcome. The would-be climax of the film comes across as cheap melodrama which left the audience emotionally unengaged. The film's end (at an odd place, well before what I would have considered the natural highlight of the woman's career) came through 'flat' and unsatisfying.
Weirdly, I came out of the "Mary Kom" movie less inspired by Mary Kom's life ... than by "A"-list actress Priyanka Chopra's real-life courage and hard work in enacting this role.
Seven stars, STRICTLY on the basis of Priyanka Chopra's powerful knock-'em-dead performance.