Mukkabaaz (), released internationally as The Brawler, is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language sports drama film co-written, co-produced and directed by Anurag Kashyap. Jointly produced by Aanand L. Rai's Colour Yellow Productions and Phantom Films, the film stars Vineet Kumar Singh, debutant Zoya Hussain, Ravi Kishan and Jimmy Shergill in the lead roles. It follows Shravan Kumar (Singh), an aspiring boxer, who falls in love with the niece of the boxing federation head, Bhagwan Das Mishra (Shergill).
Mukkabaaz was conceived by Singh, who wrote it with his sister Mukti Singh, based on his observations of several sportspersons' experiences in India. Several producers rejected it until Kashyap agreed to make the film on the condition that Singh would train to become a real boxer. To prepare, Singh went to the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, where he trained in boxing for a year. Aarti Bajaj and Ankit Bidyadhar edited the film, while Shanker Raman, Rajeev Ravi, Jay I. Patel and Jayesh Nair served as the directors of photography. The score is composed by Prashant Pillai and the songs are composed by Singh, Nucleya and Rachita Arora.
Mukkabaaz premiered in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was also screened at the 2017 Mumbai Film Festival. It was released theatrically in India on 12 January 2018 and received positive reviews, with particular praise for Singh's performance. The film grossed at the box office. At the 64th Filmfare Awards, it received three nominations including Best Actor (Critics) for Vineet and Best Story for Anudeep Singh. Vikram Dahiya and Sunil Rodrigues won the award for Best Action.
Plot Shravan Singh is a struggling boxer who works for a local politician and head of the State Boxing Federation, Bhagwan Das Mishra. He drifts away after Bhagwan Das has him perform only domestic tasks and errands rather than training him in boxing. Shravan falls in love with Bhagwan Das's niece, Sunaina, who is a mute. Her father tells him to get a job before considering marrying her. For the job, Shravan tries to enter the state-level tournament but is not selected because of Bhagwan Das. He then leaves for Varanasi and is trained by a local trainer, Sanjay Kumar.
Shravan defeats Bhagwan Das's boxer and wins a medal, after which he gets a job with the Indian Railways. Shravan and Sunaina are married as her father promised. However, Bhagwan Das despises the marriage and threatens his brother. Singh tries to balance his job, training, family life and learning sign language at Sunaina's request. Meanwhile, his boss at the office tries to harass him by putting too much work pressure on him. Bhagwan Das gets Sunaina's father fired from his job and expels her family from their home. They go to their ancestral village to live but are held captive by Bhagwan Das's goons in his village house. Bhagwan Das also breaks his brother's leg.
Later, at Sanjay Kumar's house, both Sanjay and Shravan are attacked by a mob after being falsely accused of eating beef. Sanjay gets seriously injured in the attack and is admitted to an ICU; Shravan survives the attack. He then tries to find Sunaina but fails; meanwhile, she is forcefully engaged to a businessman with a disability, by Bhagwan Das for money. Shravan fights and qualifies for the final of a national tournament. Sunaina and her mother manage to call Shravan and tell him of their whereabouts. Shravan goes there and rescues Sunaina and her family. Bhagwan Das manages to disqualify Shravan on health grounds but reinstates him after Shravan apologizes; Bhagwan Das also requires that Shravan lose the match and retire from boxing. Thus, Shravan loses the final match.
Cast
Vineet Kumar Singh as Shravan Kumar Singh Zoya Hussain as Sunaina Mishra Jimmy Sheirgill as Bhagwan Das Mishra Sadhana Singh as Meera Mishra, Sunaina's mother Ravi Kishan as Sanjay Kumar Shakti Kumar as Bhatia Rajesh Tailang as Shravan's father Shreshtha Gupta as Shravan's mother Shree Dhar Dubey as Gopal Tiwari Chittaranjan Tripathy as Krishna Kant Yadav Sukhesh Mishra as Gopal Das Shikha Chauhan as Guddi Singh, Shravan's sister Abhay Joshi as Inspector Neeraj Goyat as a professional boxer Deepak Tanwar as a boxer Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the Baaraat singer
Production Development Actor Vineet Kumar Singh said that he was not getting the kind of work he wanted in films, so he decided to write his own script on boxing, as he has an athletic background, having been a national-level basketball player who played at six National Games at the mini and sub-junior levels. The idea of the film came to Singh based on his observation of the experiences of athletes in the country. He said: "I’ve seen lots of stories like this, which stayed with me over the years. I wrote this film because I wanted to play this character and I knew the only way to do that is by writing it myself." Singh wrote the script with his sister, basketball player Mukti Singh Srinet, in 2013 and sought a financier for it. He looked at the "player's struggles — those who couldn't find their way up because they couldn't land in the officials' good books; the bad conditions they lived, played and practised in". He mentioned a single incident that triggered the script was seeing his senior, who had won several boxing medals and whose photographs had appeared in the newspaper, "stealthily porting luggage" at the Varanasi Junction railway station to make ends meet. When Singh saw him, he was trying to hide his face behind the luggage. Singh said the incident "really shook" him because he was also a sportsperson. He took inspiration from the story of some other players who worked as a sweeper or who sold their medals.
While he was pitching his script, Singh also worked on his stamina for the role by running, skipping and cardio training for two hours every day. Singh insisted that he had to be the lead actor of the film, but no producer would agree to this. Eventually, director Anurag Kashyap learned of the script. He had worked earlier with Singh on three films: Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), Bombay Talkies (2013) and Ugly (2014). Kashyap felt that the script was very similar to Rocky (1976) and asked Singh to show him a "Rocky" in India. However, Kashyap found one sequence in the script where the protagonist tries to get a government job interesting. He said he would make the film on two conditions: he would change the script a little, and Singh needed "to look like a boxer".
For Kashyap, it was boxing and the case of Narsingh Pancham Yadav, who was accused of doping, that prompted him to make the film. Singh said that he knew about the "politics, caste bias and power struggles in sports associations" but Kashyap developed the sociopolitical side of the script. To prepare for the role, Singh could find only mixed martial arts fighters in Mumbai, who were expensive. Kashyap connected him to boxer Vijender Singh, who put him in touch with coaches in Patiala. Singh sold all his belongings and left Mumbai the same night for training after Kashyap decided to make the film.
Kashyap, Singh, Mukti Singh, K.D.Satyam, Ranjan Chandel and Prasoon Mishra wrote the final script. Anand L. Rai called Kashyap and asked him to direct Manmarziyaan, but Kashyap said he wanted to make Mukkabaaz first. They both agreed to this and decided to co-produce the film. In July 2017, it was confirmed they would be working together on the film. The film is set in the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh and is inspired by several true incidents. Mukkabaaz also deals with the issue of the caste system and cow vigilantism in India. Singh trained for a year to play the part with coach Anudeep Singh, a former boxer, who was coaching people for free and runs a garage. His story was used when researching the film. He was also trained by Harpreet Singh, who was a coach of the Indian boxing team. Singh did not disclose to his coaches that he was preparing for a film role. His trainers said that Singh was learning boxing at the age when boxers usually retire. Singh's training began at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala, a year before filming. During training, he could not see punches coming and took a real beating every day, at one point breaking some ribs. Later, he learned how to counter and defend himself. He trained for more than 700 days and was injured several times.
Casting Delhi theatre actress Zoya Hussain makes her feature debut in the film playing a mute girl. Kashyap had wanted to work with her after seeing her film Three and Half Takes, which he liked. To prepare for the role, Hussain spent several months learning non-verbal language and mannerisms from sign language expert Sangeeta Gala. Kashyap said that her disability symbolises the lack of voice women in her region have.
Ravi Kishan plays the role of Sanjay Kumar, a failed boxer who teaches Shravan Kumar boxing. He was selected by casting director Mukesh Chhabra. Rajesh Tailang plays the role of Shravan's father. Jimmy Shergill was cast as the antagonist, Bhagwan Das Mishra, an upper-caste don. Sadhana Singh was also part of the film. Real life boxers Neeraj Goyat and Deepak Tanwar also appear in the film.
Filming
Kashyap sent his second unit director, Saqib Pandor, to record boxing tournaments, which were then recreated as the state tournaments for the film. They witnessed a boxing tournament happening under a tent without an audience as the boxing ring was being used for something else. Kashyap also realised that after attending an actual boxing tournament in north India that there was no audience apart from "people in power who decide which boxer should represent the state, and who will not". Kashyap told Singh not to do "filmi training" but to become a hardcore boxer. No boxing choreographers or action directors were used for the film. Kashyap also watched several Hollywood films about boxing. During filming, he fought with real international-level boxers with no choreography. He broke a rib and his hand. Kashyap said that in sports films the actors "expose themselves too much", whereas Singh "just disappeared" into the role. Mukkabaaz was shot in Bareilly, Varanasi and Lucknow in May 2017.
The film was singer-composer Rachita Arora's first film as a composer. She was recommended to Kashyap by Makrand Deshpande. She was doing a play with him and was standing outside in a parking lot. Kashyap heard a song composed by Arora and approached her, later signing her for the film. Aarti Bajaj and Ankit Bidyadhar edited the film, while Shanker Raman, Rajeev Ravi and Jayesh Nair served as the directors of photography.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack featured ten tracks; eight songs and two alternates. Rachita Arora composed seven tracks for the album, with one song "Paintra" and its extended version, being composed by Nucleya and "Adhura Main" by Vineet Kumar Singh. Lyrics for the songs were written by Singh, Hussain Haidry and Sunil Jogi. The soundtrack was released on 23 December 2017 under the Eros Music label.
Release Mukkabaaz premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was also screened at the 2017 MAMI Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation. The film was originally scheduled for release on 10 November 2017, but the date moved to 12 January 2018. Mukkabaaz was released alongside Kaalakaandi and 1921 on about 1100 screens across India. A special screening was held for the cast and crew before the theatrical release. The film is also available in DVD format and in the online streaming platform, Zee5.
Reception
Critical reception