PC PACKS IN A PUNCM AS MC!

Marykom

STARRING: Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Kumar, Zachary Coffin, Robin Das, Shakti Singh DIRECTOR: Omung Kumar

It's that life-d efining moment when a character on screen transforms totally into a real life personality. We' ve seen Seema Biswas, Ben Kingsley and Farhan Akhtar metamorphose into real life characters in front of our bewildered eyes.

Now it is Priyanka Chopra. She virtually transforms her physicality before entering the spirit and the soul of boxing champ Mary Korn (MC}.

And what a grand entry!

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Priyanka as the gritty volatile boxer from Manipur who won't take no for an answer, even from God. Penetrating a male domain like boxing in a genderdefying swoop, Priyanka's MC takes us on a voyage of self-discovery where a plucky, poor girl from rural Manipur goes right to the Olympics. It's an incredible story filled with sound and fury, signifying something deep and seductive, just waiting to be told.

Hats off to debutant director Omung Kumar for bringing us one of the most inspiring biopics to have ever reached the silver screen.

Mujhe bronze pasand nahin aata," barks MC's coach. I don't like bronze.

As we see Mary's dreams come true in front of our eyes, we know she was born to win.

The narrative has a soaring quality and texture. It simply takes off with scarcely any room for breathing space. The breathless quality of the storytelling goes well with the protagonist's stormy mercurial nature.

As MC's story unravels in flashback, we meet a woman who is not affected by the gender rules and the discrimination that governs our society.

Very early in the tightly clenched narrative, we see MC get into a fullfledged scuffle with a school bul ly. Later she takes on another far more dangerous bul l y who threatens to destroy her boxing career In and out of the arena Mary never stops fighting.

"The rest of the world may be round But your world is this square ring," her coach reminds her pointing to the boxing arena. The struggle, as depicted in the stunning unspoilt north-eastern terrain of Manipur, captured with mesmeric intensity by cinematographer Keiko Nakahara, is manifold. Here it is a curse to be born a girl. And to be born a girl who wants to be a boxing champ! You have to be kidding.

Admirably the narrative doesn't oversentimentalise MC's struggle This is "Mother India" without the glycerine and melodrama. As played by Priyanka, MC is both gritty and giggly, plucky and precocious, a ferocious fighter and a tender mother.

Priyanka expresses every shade of her character with a p itch-perfect bravado. Her north-eastern accent could easily have become caricatural. But she controls, curbs and quantifies every component of her character's personality without losing that basic element of spontaneity without which Mary would have become mechanical.

I dare any other actress to p l ay MC the way Priyanka has. With her mysti cal mix of the girlish and the aggressive, Priyanka gets the point.

My favourite sequences are the ones where MC shares tender marital moments with her husband.

If it's vital for a career woman to get a supportive husband, it is equally essential for a film starring a female hero to have a co - ac tor who can play yin to her yang. Newcomer Darshan Kumar suffuses the screen with such supreme spousal sensitivity He is a talent to watch

Predictably e nough, a lot of the opposition to MC's dreams is shown to come from w ithi n her home The ski rmish es between MC and h er father (Robin Das) and MC's gender battle with the slimy executive ofthe boxing federation (played with diabolic relish by Shakti Singh) are exceptionally 'filmy: and I use that word in the truest cinematic sense

The picturesque narrative, the richly flavoured music composed by Shashi Suman and Shivum (watch out for the poignant l ullaby sung by Priyanka), the rapid fire editing, the framing of the shimmer i ng shots and the incredibly aesthetic use of rich co l ours, all bear the unmistakable stamp of producer Sanjay Lee l a Bhansali, who is billed as Creative Director.

Mary Kam i s a motivational masterpiece. From first frame to last, it grips your senses and irrigates the