Having celebrated Women’s Day a few days back, let’s talk about the movies that Bollywood has curated, especially around female athletes and players, to be very precise- biopics and their impact on the audience.
First, the movie Mary Kom, starring Priyanka Chopra, was released in 2014. This movie not only evoked a sense of patriotism in people through powerful music and amazing songs such as Ziddi Dil, Teri Baari, and Salaam India but also motivated a lot of young girls to be bold enough to choose sports.
However, there is something more to the film than just this. One of the best parts of the film is that it not only produces the sugar-coated success story but also gives another layer of the story for the viewer to interpret. The other aspect is, what happens after you win. Is the happily ever after true? Are you still bound to be the old self you always were? Mary Kom, the biopic, and the story had something else to tell. It gave a detailed insight into how Mary Kom had to leave the sport after she got married. Mary Kom had to go back to a life that was different from what she wanted post-marriage, like how women are stereotypically bound to be the caretakers after they get married. The movie also showed the “career comeback” and that is exactly why it still holds a special place in the hearts of a lot of people for the right reasons. It inspires girls to strive and not let situations decide the extent of one’s dreams.
Another movie, that follows along the same lines as Mary Kom, a sports biopic that motivates girls is Dangal, of the year 2016. The movie Dangal is also a sports biopic focusing on the girls of the Phogat family and their struggle to win a medal for the country, not any medal but a “Gold” medal only. However, this movie also showcases the dark realities of how gender plays a huge role in determining the dreams of what a person should be. The movie strongly emphasised how the villagers always looked down upon the Phogat family for being progressive and letting their daughters play wrestling.
The movie was a box office hit because it also showed how girls can dream, strive, and pursue whatever they want, regardless of what sports it is, or how difficult it is, it is never impossible and gender does not determine the unbound potential a person has. Dangal also had an angle of how Geeta Phogat initially was distracted when she got the exposure to a bigger city and she started to deviate away from her dreams. Still, she got the reality check and then started working on her dreams all over again and got a gold for the country in the Commonwealth Games.
There is another huge line of similarity between these movies, these movies are based on sports that conventionally are not girl sports according to the stereotypes we are engulfed in, but these athletes chose to break these social norms.
