Mary Kom is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language biographical sports film based on the life of the eponymous boxer Mary Kom, directed by Omung Kumar and produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The film stars Priyanka Chopra in the lead role, with newcomer Darshan Kumar and Sunil Thapa in the supporting roles of her husband and mentor, respectively, and depicts Kom's journey from becoming a boxer to her victory at the 2008 World Boxing Championships in Ningbo. The film marks the Hindi playback singing debut of Chopra, who provided her vocals for a song named "Chaoro" (a Meiteilon lullaby).
Mary Kom was developed by the writer Saiwyn Quadras, who suggested the storyline to Kumar when Kom was not a familiar name in India despite her numerous achievements. Kumar met Kom to ask her permission for the film, before her bronze medal victory at the 2012 Summer Olympics, which brought her recognition. Chopra underwent extensive physical training for four months to attain a muscular physique and learned the sport and Kom's distinct boxing style. Principal photography started in June 2013 at Filmistan, where the boxing sequences were filmed. After plans to shoot in Kom's hometown, Manipur, were dropped due to safety concerns, Mary Kom was shot in Dharamshala and Manali, where a major portion of Manipur was recreated.
The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, becoming the first Hindi film to be screened on the opening night of the festival. Made on a budget of , Mary Kom was released on 5 September 2014 to generally positive reviews with praise for Chopra's performance. Upon its release, the film recorded the highest opening weekend of all time for a female-led Indian film. The film was a box office success, grossing at the box office. Mary Kom is also ranked among the highest-grossing Indian films led by a female actor.
Mary Kom received several accolades at award ceremonies across India. The film won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Film and Best Actress for Chopra. Additionally, Chopra won the Screen Award and the Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Plot A young Mangte Chungneijang Kom, daughter of a rice farmer from Imphal, finds a boxing glove in the remains of an air crash in 1991 in Kangathei. Kom is fascinated by the glove and grows up taking a keen interest in boxing, despite her father's disapproval. During an early fight, she chases a boy and ends up in a boxing gym. After realising that the coach of the gym, Narjit Singh, was also the coach of the Asian champion Dingko Singh, Kom tells him about her boxing aspirations. He asks her to visit the gym for the next thirty days and says that he will only teach her if she is deserving enough. She starts visiting the gym, informing her mother but not her father. Days pass, but her coach does not enquire about her. Due to Kom's dedication and stubbornness, Singh starts training her. Later, he suggests changing her name to Mary.
Kom challenges a local wrestler for money, in order to buy back a household cow, which the family had to sell off because of their financial troubles, this is where she meets the footballer Onler Kom. After winning the state-level championship, her father confronts her for keeping her involvement in the sport from him. When her father asks her to choose between him and boxing, she reluctantly chooses the sport. After watching her victorious 2002 Women's World Amateur Boxing Championships match on television, her father reconciles with Kom, and apologises to her for not understanding her passion for the sport. Meanwhile, Onler proposes to her and agrees never to ask her to quit boxing. After she wins the 2006 Women's World Amateur Boxing Championships, Kom agrees to marry him, much to her coach's dissatisfaction. After the marriage, Kom gets pregnant and gives up her career to look after her family.
Kom gives birth to twins and applies for a government job. However, she refuses the position of a police constable, feeling that as a world-champion boxer, she deserves better. It devastates her to learn that people no longer recognise her. Onler encourages her to restart her boxing training. She joins the gym again, leaving her husband to look after their twins at home. Her coach is still upset about her decision to marry, but Kom makes a comeback in the National Boxing Championship. Despite performing better than her opponent, she loses the match due to the apparent partiality of the judges. Kom throws a chair in anger towards them, resulting in a ban. She later writes an apology letter, and the official accepts it, but only after insulting her.
Kom then convinces Narjit Singh to train her, as she thinks that he is the one who can get the best out of her. After completing her training, she participates in the 2008 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships and reaches the finals. Meanwhile, Onler informs her about one of their children having ventricular septal defect. In the subsequent fight, Kom fails to defend herself. After a knockout punch from her opponent, Kom hallucinates about her husband and children in the audience. She regains her strength and fights back, winning the championship. On the podium, while accepting the medal, she learns that her son's surgery was successful. Later, she is given the nickname "Magnificent Mary", with the Indian flag waving and the Indian national anthem playing in the background.
Cast
Credits adapted from Bollywood Hungama.
Production
Development
During his work as an art director on Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya (2007), Omung Kumar started writing two scripts simultaneously for his directorial debut. However, none of the films were made. He then asked writer Saiwyn Quadras to look for a female biographical subject for his first film, specifying "a role that no actress would turn down." He added that he "wanted to make a film that would be like the Mother India of someone's career." Historical personalities such as Rani Laxmi Bai and Queen Elizabeth I of England came up for discussion; however they did not inspire Kumar. Quadras put forward the name of five-time world boxing champion Mary Kom, who despite numerous achievements, was at that time an unfamiliar name in India. Kumar admitted that he felt disgusted after being told of Kom's achievements as he was unaware of her existence. Quadras later approached Kumar with the script for Mary Kom, and he decided to make his directorial debut with it.
Quadras, who was interested in sports, started writing the screenplay for the film in 2011, which took two years to complete. Quadras arranged a meeting with Kom via her manager in the year he started writing the script. Kumar went to Manipur to meet Kom and seek her permission to make the film. Initially, Kom was surprised by the development as the sport, especially women's boxing, was not well known in India. However, she was enthusiastic about the idea.
Research for the film was done through available sources, such as online information and newspaper archives. Kom's videos played a key role in the research. The writer also had several telephone and email conversations with her regarding her biography. In her interactions with Quadras and Kumar, Kom was forthcoming when it came to the details of her life, and had significant input in the screenplay. However, Quadras revealed that his biggest challenge was to make the film authentic and cinematic yet not documentary-like, so he wrote the film in a manner that showed the struggles Kom went through as a female sportsperson who had to confront opposition from her father, politics and making a comeback after a long career break. Karan Singh Rathore Ramendra Vashishth wrote the dialogues. The film only shows the period from her early struggles and her comeback after motherhood. Her fifth World Boxing Championship win and the London Olympics were left out because of the contract that permitted a depiction of Kom's life up to 2008. The contract for the film was signed at that time when Kom had not even qualified for the London Olympics. Nevertheless, the film took several cinematic liberties for dramatic effects.
In a 2012 meeting with Bhansali, Kumar told him about the film; he explained that this was a kind of cinema contrary to Bhansali's signature work. Still, Bhansali wanted to hear the story and was also enthusiastic towards the project. After hearing the script, he liked it and immediately agreed to produce the film. Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Bhansali, Under his production company Bhansali Productions came together to produce the film. However, Kumar's colleagues were not sure if a film based in Manipur would be well received by the audience. This concern evaporated after the 2012 Summer Olympics, where Kom won a bronze medal. Her win also highlighted her previous achievements. After the news of the development of the film broke in the media, the makers clarified that the film was in development since 2011, much before the Olympics, and they were not influenced by her recent success. In an interview with Press Trust of India, Bhansali described the film as a "rare experiment", for the fact that "Not many films are based on biopics of living people" and expressed his pride about his association with the project, adding that the story was so inspiring, it touched his heart.
Casting and characters Chopra was Kumar's and Bhansali's first choice for the title role. In early November 2012, media reports suggested that Chopra entered negotiations to star in the film, which she denied initially. Later in that month, it was confirmed that she had been cast for the part. She was initially skeptical about the film due to the demanding nature of the character, which included training, muscle building, and learning the sport. She later agreed to the film because of Kumar's confidence in her. The decision to cast Chopra proved controversial as some believed that an actress from Northeast India bearing Kom's likeness would be better suited for the role. The director however felt that the film needed a big star with a wider reach and casting an unknown actress from that region would reduce the film's scope and lessen its reach, thus defeating his purpose of telling Kom's story to a larger audience. Emphasizing Chopra's bankability and reach among the audiences Kumar remarked, "I not only needed a capable actress but also someone who can connect with millions of viewers". Mary Kom defended Chopra's casting and thought of Chopra as the "perfect choice" for the role. In an interview with Daily News and Analysis, Kom described Chopra as the best actress to play the role, adding that her body was well structured, like that of a boxer.
In contrast, it took the casting directors Shruti Mahajan and Paragg Mehta several months of auditions to finalise the appropriate supporting actors for the film. In May 2013, a wide section of the media reported that Danny Denzongpa was approached to play Kom's coach Narjit Singh in the film. Instead, Sunil Thapa was cast for the role of Kom's coach. Darshan Kumar was finalised as Kom's husband, footballer Onler Kom, after a series of auditions which included three different looks representing three different stages in his life. Robin Das, a National School of Drama professor, was cast in the role of Kom's father.