Cast: Vineet Kumar Singh, Rajesh Tailang, Jimmy Shergill, Shreedhar Dubey, Zoya Hussain

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Rating: Four stars

Mukkabaaz is a boxing melodrama, and it is at its best when the gloves are off. In the posh old halls of Liberty cinemas in Mumbai, made at a time when it was Bombay, history of Hindi cinema has its own special space. Made in the art deco style the year India got its independence, it was named freedom celebrating this very spirit of new beautiful and hopeful India that was going to unfold.

It was that era when audiences screamed in joy when love won over its enemies. This new film Mukkabaaz has unfolded with a new rendition of the eternal ingredient of literature and of cinema: Love. And within it, there is another story, of the world that love is surrounded by: Hate. Mukkabaaz has elicited great reviews and a standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival (where it had its world premiere) and the 19th edition of Jio MAMI Mumbai film festival.

“Our first realisation was that there’s no Pro-boxing league in India. It started only in 2017, way after we started researching about it. Moreover, the kind of boxing we see in Hollywood films doesn’t exist in India. We couldn’t watch films for references as there were no Indian films showcasing that. So we needed actual references,” says anurag Kashyap. So Kashyap’s main thing was –How to make the film dramatic in these three rounds? “Besides, while researching we delved into matters like what’s the sports scenario in our country? How much of corruption is prevalent in sports? How much of casteism is there in it? Nepotism – all these isms that are prevalent in the Sports industry – we found our entire story around them,” he says.

Mukkabaaz is a total knockout. The not-just-a-boxing film must not be missed as it puts forth a message that’s most relevant in today’s world !