Mary Kom Review

MC Mary Kom is one such Indian sportsperson who will go down in history as one of the most successful Indian sportsperson and certainly the most successful and revered sportswoman. But the tragedy is a vast majority of Indians still don’t realize the struggles she went through to achieve whatever she achieved. So when director Omung Kumar decided to make a film on her we were all looking forward to it. As it is, India does not produce many sports films so a film like Mary Kom is always welcome. The promos have been generally well liked and the promotions have also been very good. The audience will come to watch the film but is it as good as the real Mary Mom’s escapades in the boxing field?

Story: The film Mary Kom, of course, tells the story of the real life India boxer MC Mary Kom. Young Mary Kom (Priyanka) liked to pick up fights and always had an aggressive streak in her. Boxing was the natural outlet for her aggression. So she joins boxing classes under coach M. Narjit Singh. She hides her boxing career from her dad who discovers it in the newspapers. After overcoming challenges raised by her family, she becomes a champion. But then she falls in love and gets married and has twins. Her marriage and subsequent motherhood aggravates her coach who thinks she is ruining her potential by settling down. However, the fighter that she is, she makes a comeback and wins three more world championships and along the way has to fight racial bias against Northeastern people and also the evil bureaucrats running Sports in India.

The biggest grouse that we have about Mary Kom is that the writer Saiwyn Quadras has written a script which is mainly a juxtaposition of various episodes from the dramatic life of Mary Kom without any coherent thought. The director Omung Kumat employs snazzy editing techniques towards the climax to make it a lot more fluid but by then the damage has been done. This is not to say that Mary Kom is a bad film. It is far from one. It is the employment of gender reversed clichéd plot points which make the film go away from the realistic approach it sorely required. Mary Kom has instead been turned into a masala action film where the main protagonist is an angry young woman with a golden heart, and did we mention she is a Northeastern who also happens to be a boxer?

Mary Kom
Mary Kom Movie Review

The technical aspects of Mary Kom are actually good. They make the film look good. The production design is well done with most of the shooting taking place in actual locations of Imphal. The costume design is decent but the makeup is not up to the mark. Priyanka Chopra should have been made to look more like Mary Kom; adding a million freckles on her cheeks is lazy makeup work. The music of Mary Kom is good with the background songs and the background score going well with the tone of the film.

Acting: Priyanka Chopra has worked very hard for this project which is driven mainly by her star power. And she does vow us with her scintillating acting. Mary Kom is definitely one of her best performances, however, she could have taken it to a different level altogether. The other actors who play the other roles are well cast. Darshan Kumar who plays Mary Kom’s husband is a pleasant face but he has zero chemistry with Priyanka in the film. Sunil Thapa who plays Mary Mom’s coach is an irritating presence. Someone rub that frown from his face, pronto.

Conclusion: Mary Kom is a film that decides to forego the realistic approach of telling a true champion’s story and takes the masala route to earn a few extra bucks at the box office. A national icon like MC Mary Kom deserved a better movie even though this is not unwatchable by any means. It has many intriguing moments and the directing flaws are almost balanced out by the wonderful life story of MC Mary Kom. Go watch the film if you’re in the mood for spurious cinematic patriotism. Just don’t expect a masterpiece or even a film as good as Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

Box Office: Mary Kom will open well at the box office due to its good release date, huge screen count and a proper marketing strategy. We expect it to be liked by the audience and the box office numbers will surely surprise a lot of trade observers.

Positives:

  • Decision to choose to make a film of MC Mary Kom
  • Priyanka Chopra’s gutsy performance
  • The production design is good
  • The fight scenes feel realistic even if a bit overdone
  • The editing

Negatives:

  • The screenplay lacks any coherence
  • The decision to make it into a masala film
  • The makeup is silly

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Advertisements

53 Comments

  • It was typical bollywood crap…just wasted my money..these moneymongers turned a sportspersons movie in to typical masala movie….sad

  • She looks unreal…bad make up…no chemistry with husband…scripting flaws…bad direction…..overly melodrama like typical masala film sicken of these craps

  • the only reasons to make this movie was to earn Priyanka all awards and and earn big bucks by approaching the project commercially and not as a reality, Champion MC Mary Kom deserved better Biopic than this.

  • Ohhh Myy Gawd… Why did Mr.Bhansali take Priyanka for this role. She doen’t suit the character at all.
    Felt like punching the Mary Kom on screen because of her OTT acting. Horrible she was.
    When there are so many good actress who would have suited the character why go to PC , just because she’s CHEAP(no pun intended). Parineeti would have been much much better in this role, or even Deepika or Kareena or Vidya or Kangana or even Anushka but Piggy Chops completely destroys the movie.

  • Last two years saw so many great movies! This year has only a few like queen or dedh ishqiyaa in the 8 months! Will watch Mary Kom later. .

  • Some times indicine reviews look good! But some times they become biased towards some dharma movies and other movies.

  • @sibtain: i haven’t watched the movie. But you seriously feel those actresses like kareena,vidya or DP would have done better job? ? Kareena gives same kind of expression in her all movies. Also,she has done overacting in her 80% of movies. Vidya will look bulky in the role. DP, Anushka, Pari are n’t experienced actresses.

  • Go & watch Raja Natwarlal.Atleast u will be happy.Mary kom made only for awards that prianka wants.
    Its ur money. think about it.

  • People had very high expectations from this film,i think it may be a disappointing affair for them and this could reflect on the boxoffice no. too.

  • I think Kangana or Rani should be given the best actress award this year…PC’s accent is looking very fake manipuri one…doing a sports film does’nt mean you should get the best actress award too!!!

  • what i said 60 crore maximum my prediction is 55 crore. and they talked about 100 crores dnt u feel difference between milkha singh and marycom. milkha singh is more famous than mary.com.

  • My wifes a fan of Mary Kom and Indian sportswomen in general- I personally dont want to watch Mary Kom in a cinema but something tells me Im gonna be visiting a cinema near me this weekend and paying for the pleasure….

    Now Im really hoping its a good movie but I rather watch Mardaani tbh- love Rani more than PC….

  • Sad that Olympic medallist life has such a poor biopic.

    2 out of 10 from my side.only pc’s acting,everything else is bad

  • Nipun I can’t blv u just said that!if indicine was biased towards dharma then they wouldnt hv given 3 stars to this film despite criticizing it so much.forget 5 star rating,mary kom deserves only 2 out of 10 stars.it is a shamelessly manipulative film and should flop at the box office

  • Feel bad for pc.she is a highly successful and good actress but whenever she does women centric film it flops(except fashion).

  • The last top notch, perfect and well made biopic is dedicated to MIRANJAN NEGI…..CDI is the perfect example how to make a biopic….Others are more and more dramatic…..Even BMB faced criticism even from prominent figures of B TOWN like NASEERUDDIN SHAH but not CDI….All hail SRK…..Waiting for another strong performance based content oriented WOM driven film from you.

  • @nipun first watch mary kom and then accuse indicine of being biased against mary kom.mary kom doesn’t even deserve 3 out of 10

Leave a Comment