Magnificent Mary

Priyanka Chopra as Mary Kom

Any discussion about boxing icons revolves around male boxers. Boxing legends Mohammed Ali and Mike Tyson, who are considered all-time greats, are equally popular among elders as well as youngsters across the world. Vijender Singh, who won India’s first Olympic boxing medal, has become a hero of young Indians.

All of a sudden, we the Indians have got another boxer to feel proud of, the Magnificent Mary or Mary Kom.

But, she isn’t a new sensation. She has been the five-time World Amateur Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each  of the six world championships. 

Achieving such success is not an easy job. But she was maintaining a low profile, staying far away from the madding crowd. Her achievements were barely known to ordinary Indians until the news of her biopic caught fire.

Thanks to the Hindi film industry which reintroduced her to the world. Famous actress Priyanka Chopra, portraying Mary Kom on the screen, has really done a good job.

Mary Kom is not the first film to bring a forgotten sportstar to the limelight. Only a few of the young generation would have information about Milkha Singh, until a film on his life and achievements was released.

Hats off to all those creative minds who got the idea of making feature films on these famous personalities, be it Omung Kumar — director of the biographical sports drama film on Mary Kom, or  Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra — who made the film on Milkha Singh.

It is frequently mentioned that Bollywood is nothing but songs and dances. I hope these films prove them wrong. Bollywood is more ahead than just songs and dances.

(Published in The Gulf Today on September 13, 2014)