Hindi
Mary Kom:..for…. awards.Kom
MUMBAI: Sports films are not the best bets on the Indian screen, least of all biopics. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag worked thanks to its climax where Milkha outruns a Pakistani champ in Pakistan. Indians may lose to all of world but winning against Pakistan matters the most. Mary Kom offers no such satisfaction. It remains a sports biopic drama.
Mary Kom was in news in 2012 when she won an Olympic bronze, which was not much when one thinks about her six world amateur wins; five gold and one silver medals. She would, hence, be expected to win a Gold at the Olympics.
However, it is a story of grit and determination of a young woman from Manipur, who finds a boxing glove one curfew-imposed night in the trouble-torn Manipur state, far removed from rest of India and the comforts and facilities the rest of India enjoys. Mary’s and other Manipuri’s valid grouse is that they are proud of India but most of the Indians don’t even consider ‘us’ as Indians.
Priyanka Chopra plays Chungneijang, as she was christened at birth and rechristened M C Mary Kom by M Narjit Singh (played by Sunil Thapa), the state boxing coach. Mary Kom has been fascinated by the sport of boxing since finding that glove in her childhood. Since then, boxing becomes her aim and ambition in life. She is a rebel, the eldest of three children in her family, and she always does what she wants to do for herself.
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Director: Omung Kumar. Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Kumaar, Sunil Thapa. |
Producers: Viacom 18, Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
One day, Chopra discovers a boxing academy where the coach is a stickler and reluctant to accept her. She has to pass a one month test sitting on bench and watching others training before she is accepted. Eventually, her determination gets her through and the coach accepts her as his ward. This is where the legend of Mary Kom begins. Soon, she is on the national boxing scene, followed by the Asian and later international scene.
The rest of the film is about Mary Kom’s travails through family resistance, her marriage and children that follow; balancing between her boxing life and bringing up her twin children, one of whom is seriously afflicted with a heart problem. Yet, her husband, Onler (played by Darshan Kumaar), is her mainstay, who realises that boxing is her life and goes all out to support her to continue her boxing even after marriage with a promise to look after the children.
After her marriage and children, Mary Kom returned to boxing due to coaxing by her husband with eight years gone by. What follows is well-known and is not covered in the film except her return.
The film also points to the poor conditions and diet of tea and bananas that the Boxing Federation provides, the high-handedness of politicians controlling the Federation and their manipulations in team selections. The film dwells deeply on the rigorous training and endurance tests that Mary Kom goes through, which one was not aware a boxer needed to do.
Like with other recent heroine-oriented films, here too all except Chopra are new faces. This is supposed to not only balance the budget but also land a touch of reality as the co-performers have no set image. Thus, Thapa, Kumaar and others make a perfect foil to the protagonist, Chopra, trying to get under the skin of a living character, Mary Kom. Chopra, on her part, gives her best to this film and excels. Her performance is sure to be lauded by critics and rewarded with awards.
Direction is praiseworthy this being Omung Kumar’s first film and a tough one at that being a biography. The film does sag at times but that is inevitable. The last fight, as she fights in China while her little child is undergoing a heart surgery is cliche like a 70s film where the protagonist ONLY takes punches and a miracle happens as the operation in Gurgaon is successful, fuelling Mary Kom with a newfound determination to win the fight in the third round. Dialogue is earthy and laced with humour at times. The film has too many songs for the kind of film it is; some relate the state of mind of Mary Kom while the lullaby is meant to show her balancing her career and family ties. Cinematography by Keiko Nakahara is excellent.
Mary Kom is being released on a big scale at multiple screens wanting to cash in on the huge hype created in the media. The film will find patronage mainly at elite multiplexes while it has no appeal for the typical single screen patrons. The film has been exempted from paying entertainment tax while some other states are expected to follow but that won’t be much help.
In a music industry that often rewards speed, spectacle, and instant recall, Navjot Ahuja’s journey feels refreshingly different. His story is not built on noise. It is built on patience, discipline, emotional honesty, and a quiet commitment to becoming better with every passing year. After 14 years of struggle, learning, performing, and writing, Navjot stands today as an artist whose success has not changed his centre. If anything, it has only made his purpose clearer.
For Navjot, music has never been about chasing fame alone. It has always been about expression. It is about writing more truthfully, singing more skillfully, understanding himself more deeply, and becoming a kinder human being in the process. That rare clarity is what gives his journey its beauty.
Where It All Began: A Writer Before a Singer
Indian singer and songwriter Navjot Ahuja’s musical journey began in the most familiar of places: school assemblies. But even then, what was growing inside him was not only the desire to sing. It was the need to write.
Long before he saw himself as a performer, he had already discovered the emotional release that writing offered him. For Navjot, words became the first true channel for feeling. Songwriting came before singing because writing was the only way he could let emotions flow through him fully. That inner pull shaped his artistic identity early on.
Like many young musicians, he sharpened his craft by creating renditions of popular songs.
Those experiments became his training ground. But the turning point came in 2012, when he wrote his first original song. That moment did not just mark the beginning of songwriting. It marked the beginning of self-definition.
A Calling He Did Not Chase, But Accepted
What makes the latest Indian singer-songwriter Navjot’s story especially compelling is the way he describes his relationship with music. He does not frame it as a career he aggressively pursued. In his own understanding, music was not something he chose. It was something that chose him.
There was a time when he imagined a very different future for himself. He wanted to become a successful engineer, like many young people shaped by ambition and conventional expectations. But life had a different script waiting for him. During his college years, around 2021, music entered his life professionally and began taking a firmer shape.
That shift was not driven by image-building or industry ambition. It came from acceptance. Navjot embraced the fact that music had claimed him in a way no other path could. That sense of surrender continues to define the artist he is today.
An Artist Guided by Instinct, Not Influence
Unlike many singers who speak openly about idols, icons, and musical role models, Navjot’s creative world is built differently. He does not believe his music comes from imitation or inherited influence. He listens inward.
He has never considered himself shaped by ideals in the traditional sense. In fact, he admits that he does not particularly enjoy listening to songs, especially his own. His decisions as a songwriter and singer come from instinct. He writes what feels right. He trusts what his inner voice tells him. He positions his music according to what he honestly believes in, not what trends demand.
That creative independence gives his work a distinct emotional sincerity. His songs do not feel calculated. They feel alive.
The Long Years of Invisible Struggle
Every artist carries a chapter of struggle, and Navjot’s was long, demanding, and deeply formative. One of the biggest challenges he faced was building continuity as the best new indian singer songwriter in an era where musical collaboration is increasingly fluid.
For emerging singers, especially those trying to build with a band, consistency can be difficult. Instrumentalists today have more opportunities than ever to freelance and perform with multiple artists. While that growth is positive and well deserved, it can make things harder for singers who are still trying to establish a steady team and sound around their work.
For Navjot, one of the most difficult phases came during 2021 and 2022, when he was doing club shows almost every day. It was a period of relentless performance, but not always personal fulfillment. He was largely singing covers because clubs were not open to original songs that audiences did not yet know.
For a new Indian singer and songwriter, that can be a painful compromise. To perform constantly and still not have the freedom to share your own voice requires not just resilience, but restraint.
“Khat” and the Grace of Staying Unchanged
After 14 years of effort, Navjot’s new love song Khat became a defining milestone. Professionally, he acknowledges that the song changed how society viewed him as a musician. It strengthened his place in the public eye and altered his standing in meaningful ways.
Yet personally, he remains unchanged.
That is perhaps the most striking part of his story. Navjot says his routine is still the same. His calm is still the same. His writing process is still the same. He does not want success or failure to interfere with the purity of his art. For him, emotional detachment from public outcomes is essential because the moment an artist becomes too attached to validation, the writing begins to shift.
His joy comes not from numbers, but from the attempt. If he has tried to improve his skill today, if he has written his heart out more honestly than before, then he is at peace.
Growth, Not Glory, Remains the Real Goal
Even now, Navjot is not consumed by labels such as singles artist, performer, or digital success story. His focus remains deeply personal. He wants to sing better. He wants to play instruments better. He wants to understand himself more. And he wants to become a kinder person.
That is what makes Navjot Ahuja’s journey so moving. It is not simply the story of a musician finding recognition. It is the story of an artist who continues to grow inward, even as the world begins to look outward at him. In an age obsessed with applause, Navjot reminds us that the most meaningful success often begins in silence, honesty, and the courage to remain true to oneself.
