The Brawler
(Mukkabaaz)

The story of a low-caste boxer with a bullet-proof obstinacy, The Brawler rekindles the exciting sensation of doping that creeps into each of Anurag Kashyap’s films. « Education will take me nowhere, » insists Shravan (Vineet Kumar Singh) faced with the continuous disapproval of his father, who remains sceptical about his son’s determination to become India’s Mike Tyson. The young fighter’s enthusiasm does not wane when “lower-caste” trainers take him in hand, sidestepping the boycott decreed by the Brahmin, Bhagwan, a local kingpin and influential promoter of boxing in the region. Strengthened by his love for Sunaina, the mute (but not forcibly submissive) niece of powerful Bhagwan, Shravan does not kowtow. A boxing film and the umpteenth Shakespearean gesticulation of Indian cinema, a thriller and incisive critique of a kind of social Darwinism, Kashyap’s fourteenth feature regurgitates all the ingredients of popular culture (the singing, the street, the decorous flirting, the television- and video-clip-style gimmicks…). In doing so, it restores the genre to all of its subversive strength and offers another cinematic mirror to replace that in which India loves to contemplate itself. AR