Mary Kom – A movie worth your time despite faulty and clichéd storytelling

Exhausted. Tired. Almost feel like I can fall asleep if I stop typing. It’s been a long, long day but a one that I will always remember, for a lot of personal reasons.  In life, there is a long list of things that needs to be done by us, in various situations, for various people, regardless of how unwilling we are to actually do them.

This is something I need to do for myself, no matter how tired I am.

Mary Kom is the story of an Indian woman boxer who is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championship. She is the only Indian woman boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the flyweight (51 kg) category and winning the bronze medal. Ranked as No. 4 in AIBA World Women’s Ranking Flyweight category, this 31 year old has a story to tell, and the kind that compels you to give it some thought.

Priyanka Chopra who plays Mary Kom has done exceptionally well and a large amount of credit  goes to her flawless acting abilities that take you on an emotional and inspirational journey of the Five times boxing champion. New comer Darshan Kumaar has rightfully earned his place in the industry and not once is he over shadowed by the experienced A-list female lead. Director Omung Kumar has done his part in bringing forth the story and giving it the required platform so that it reaches out to maximum number of people.

The first half of the movie is better than the second, only because the latter lacks the pace and grip on the story. By the time the interval arrives you feel like you’ve already spent a much longer time than what is suggested by your watch. Slow paced, clichéd Bollywood story telling and absolutely unnecessary and annoying brand endorsements in the film reassures the fact that Hindi cinema has a natural way of getting to you in spite of having a strong script, for once.

As the movie progresses you seem to be losing patience and the deteriorating pace- like I mentioned earlier- only makes it worse. But you will sit there and finish it because at the end of the day, it’s that it’s a biography that helps you get through it. In spite of the actors delivering some extremely moving performances the hero of the movie, is the script. And it helps to appreciate it further if you can overlook the typical Bollywood style used to convey it, which can really get to you trust me, especially after a long hectic day.

But what hit me at the end of the movie was the fact that I didn’t know that Mary Kom is a five time world champion. I didn’t know that she is the only woman boxer ever to have won a medal in each one of the six world championship and so on. As the credits made their way on the screen I wondered what a pathetic situation I found myself in that it required me to watch a film to educate myself about a person who has brought such great laurels to this country, against all odds. I had to come home and Google about her so that I could get rid of the lingering feeling that this effort had not been made earlier. I don’t know if it’s just me or are there similar others too, which is why the initial paragraph has been borrowed from Wikipedia to give the reader a brief idea of who Mary Kom is and why she is referred to as “Magnificent Mary.”

So yes, it’s not the standard I was expecting and there are a few things they could have easily done away with, but it’s worth a watch because it’s the kind of story that needs to be told. Watch it for the unbelievable conviction the boxer has shown in her life to put herself back where she belongs, and to be able achieve what she has. A salute to her loving and supportive husband, Onler Kom, who has a major role to play in her career’s second innings.