मुक्काbaaz : Tale of two Halves!

Like the title divided in two languages, the movie can also be seen as a tale of two halves. One is raw, exciting, refreshing, and the other is slow, tiring…. with a smart ending!
Over the years, Anurag Kashyap has created a brand for his ‘real’, ‘hard-hitting’ cinema, and as with any brand, we have blind brand followers, who just don’t seem to get disappointed by his films.
Between Kaalakaandi and Mukkabaaz, I would have preferred Kaalakaandi, however I ended up being at the later, courtesy a follower. I was just not in the mood for that brand of cinema, which is just a lot of cuss words, blood, violence, which sometimes just feels too much over the top, or just for the sake of it.

First Half

However, the first half surprised me, at interval it seemed that the first half was a movie in itself, as so much happens in the movie. The lead, Vineet Singh, plays the boxer to perfection, training does look authentic, and there are few relatable moments in the film, like when he realizes that he can play from a different district rather than his own where is having problems for getting into the team. If you have met some grassroots players, you can relate to it, the sheer lack of information, I know a few players, who played India’s premier sport of Cricket, yet, lacked the understanding that a simple move from one club to another improved their chances of getting into the Ranji team! .
Zoya Hussain plays a character who cannot speak and communicates through sign language, quite good. There is something about sign language and characters on screen, that makes it…. a novelty to watch. I used to watch ‘Switched at Birth’ for just that reason, the storyline became more and more bizarre like a typical soap opera, yet hand signaling characters carried the show.
The steal is Jimmy Shergill, the way he holds up the mobile to read is so true!. He has quite a reputation when it comes to playing such characters, from the hindi heartland, and he fits the bill perfectly. His antagonism is so pure, no shade of grey, a pure dark character, that hate he carries, in some way, he reminds of John Travolta in ‘Face-off’, that moment when he realizes his game is up, he proceeds to just tearing and destroying his face, such pure hate, that even in defeat he does not want Nicholas Cage to have his face back.
Till interval many things happen, there is a thrill, some stark reality, characters moving, clashes, and the story has a near perfect curve, so much so that as mentioned before, it seems a movie in itself.

Then the second half…..

However, then the second half follows. It is a pure drag, if the first half is a Dirt Car race, then the second half is a marathon!. The story just drags, and is quite dozy, predictable in many parts. Performances a still solid, but the story does not go anywhere, I ended up speculating whether the expendable character of ‘Gopal’ will actually get expended. The songs that feel refreshingly off beat in the first half, become tiring in the second, what gives away is the pace.
The only thing that saves the second half is the ending, unpredictable, smart and ‘real’. The point made : “Blind passion is for idiots! smartness is in navigating the terrain, quite selfishly”. All passionate characters, Jimmy Shergill, Ravi Kishan, end up losing something or the other, and the selfish choices prevail!, though its laden with sarcasm, however the irony is not wasted in the last slide, when future status of all characters gets listed !