Tribute to the Brilliant Blues: Women athletes who inspired Indian cinema |
Sports basically, is a way of life that demands a certain attitude, high moral values, focus and strict discipline. A sport is a concept and an ideology not limited to performance in the field or within the four walls of a hall such as chess. Do these carry over in films dealing with sports through entirely fictionalised narratives or through real-life representations on celluloid? Let us take a look at the representation of sporting women in Indian cinema.
An ideal example of a good fictionalized sports film detailed in technique and training and other paraphernalia including the choice of the main cast and the actual framing and choreographing of the sports scenes is Saala Khadoos (2016). Madhavan, an intense actor who has played reasonably ‘cool’ roles, produced and acted in Saala Khadoos, a film centered on boxing which was a very big hit in the southern version but not that big a hit in the Hindi belt.
The film features two female boxers who knew boxing. Roland Barthes in Camera Luciha (1980) wrote “The power of authentication exceeds the power of representation.” For Saala Khadoos Madhavan picked a real life boxer to perform the main role of a female boxer who surprisingly turned out to be a great actress too. Saala Khadoos is the story of a failed boxer coaching a very poor girl from a fisherman’s family to boxing greatness.
For her award-worthy performance in Mary Kom (2014) fictionalised from the real life story of the rise and rise and rise of Mary Kom in competitive boxing. Olympic bronze medallist M.C. Mary Kom is also a wife and mother. Priyanka says she underwent 45 days of rigorous strength training even when she was travelling because she had her trainer travel along with her so that she did not miss out on her training. Sources state that to make some scenes look real, the director made Priyanka fight with and confront real life boxers during the fight scenes.
“A significant aspect of my training for my role in Mary Kom was to try and follow Mary’s regular routine. Besides beginning her day by running a distance of 14 kms followed by stretching exercises, Mary does shadow boxing and goes to the gym in the evenings where she does strength training and practices boxing in the ring. The vital aspect is to maintain the coordination of the brain and eye for speed and power, the most important things for any boxer. For me, Mary Kom is not just a film. It helped me grow as a person and made be cope with the loss of my father,” says Priyanka.
Performance Cinema is a term that precisely describes the kind of grueling homework, focus and determination demanded by the actor who performs the role of a serious sportsperson especially........