A HARD-HITTING LOVE STORY OF AN UNDERDOG

Beneath the mucky layers of casteism and cow vigilantism, behind the murky world of politics and bureaucracy, Mukkabaaz is a beautiful love story. A love story between an underdog who wants to be the country’s greatest boxer (or as he puts it, “Uttar Pradesh ka Mike Tyson”) and a spunky girl who refuses to bow down to the patriarchal system she’s brought up in. 

Their romance unfolds over notes they quietly slip into each other’s palms in a busy market or through gestures made under the cover of darkness in the middle of the night. Their love, star-crossed, is mostly unspoken, for she is mute. But Shravan (Vineet Kumar Singh, earlier seen in Ugly and Gangs of Wasseypur) and Sunaina’s (debutante Zoya Hussain) love story is loud enough to break the shackles that society has imposed on them. 

It’s this romance that spirals off the drama of this Anurag Kashyap film and sets its tone through its 156-minute running time. Shravan, like thousands of young men in the heartland, has the talent to shine, but not the means to wrestle through the politics that weigh down Indian sport. His punches are enough to knock out an opponent within the first minute, but his selection to the state team depends on the whim of the local don Bhagwandas Mishra (Jimmy Shergill). 

Bhagwandas, who calls the shots in almost everything that happens in Bareilly, uses the local aspirants, Shravan included, to sometimes carry out his menial tasks and, most often, massage his ego. But one look at the doe-eyed Sunaina — who happens to be Bhagwandas’s niece — and Shravan decides to stand up for himself and his pride. He rebels, inadvertently lands a punch on Bhagwandas, gets mauled by the man’s goons but manages to smile through it all. For in Sunaina, he finds a reason to fight on and in him, she discovers the hero she never had. 

But Bhagwandas isn’t the only villain Shravan is up in arms against. The guy has several battles to fight every day — politics in the federation, pressure from parents who fail to recognise his passion for the sport, a romance that seems doomed from the start and the weight of being branded a low-caste. The going is tough but Shravan finds a mentor in Sanjay Kumar (Ravi Kishan) and works his way up to marry Sunaina, of course against Bhagwandas’s will, and at interval point, the film is set for a face-off between the two. 

Mukkabaaz is a classic underdog story, but branding it just a sport saga would undermine what Kashyap layers it with. The film is a political commentary on the biggest issues that plague the country today and Kashyap pulls no punches — the opening shot is of a group of young men being bashed up by cow vigilantes — in showing things as they are. It’s also to his credit that he manages to often lend a light touch to the narrative; besides the refreshing romance at the core, there’s the banter between Shravan and his peers and his run-ins with his orthodox father (played by Rajesh Tailang). 

But even as Kashyap deals with one thing too many — the second half drags, despite the tension — he makes sure that the boxing bits aren’t glossed over. Raw, bloody and brutal, the moments in the ring — filmed by as many as four cinematographers — give Mukkabaaz its heft and heart.  

Kashyap’s visceral vision is brought to life by some stellar acts, with Zoya Hussain making Sunaina the most feisty heroine (those eyes!) Bollywood has seen in a while. Jimmy Shergill has built innings number two on earthy characters and his Bhagwandas is intriguing and repulsive at the same time. Ravi Kishan’s studied and subtle performance makes you wish there was more of him, but he does get the film’s best line — outlining the thin line between a mukkabaaz (brawler) and a mukkebaaz (boxer). 

But it’s Vineet Kumar Singh who’s the beating heart of Mukkabaaz. With a physicality that lends itself naturally to the role, Vineet — who reportedly came up with the original idea of the film and has been living with the story for years now — gives us an underdog we root for till the end. Even when he throws it all away, but on his terms... and with that smile. 

Priyanka Roy
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