‘Mary Kom’ opens to packed houses

GUWAHATI: ‘Mary Kom’, a film based on the life of the Manipur boxer of the same name, had a smooth sailing at the box office here on the first day of its release.
Despite the bad weather, people flocked to single and double-screen threatres to catch the pugilist, played by Priyanka Chopra, in action. The large turnout of enthusiastic cinegoers here was in contrast to Kom’s native Manipur, where the film could not be screened because of a decade-old ban on Hindi films by rebels.
“Mary Kom is my role model. She is a wife, mother and boxer. At a time women are being subjected to violence and torture everywhere, Kom’s story should be a message for women’s empowerment,” said second-year graduate student Tanushree Phukan.
The biopic on the Olympic medalist and five-time world champion opened in all cinema halls across the city on Friday.
With its first day coinciding with Teachers’ Day, school and college students formed a bulk of the audience. Hall owners and proprietors expressed satisfaction over the audience response.
The fact that Bollywood had zoomed in on the northeast and focused on one of its iconic women had generated a lot of curiosity among people. For long the excitement had been building and now that the film has finally opened, people made a beeline for the theatres.
“The response was overwhelming,” said a source at Anuradha Cinema and added, “Bad weather did not play spoilsport and the turnout was almost 70%.”
Some theatres in the city opened its bookings two days prior to the film’s release. The rush was unbelievable and within hours all tickets were sold out save for the front rows.
The film has been released at 72 screens across Assam and Meghalaya.
“I would say there was 100% turnout. The film has generated a lot of buzz because of its central character, who is from this region. Our theatre has two screens with a seating capacity of 78 and 110 and there are 10 shows,” said Rajesh More of Gold Digital Cinema.
The presence of Assamese actors like Kenny Basumatary and Rajni Basumatary, who play's Mary mother, has also been a crowd puller.
“Mary is a five-time world champion in boxing. Her story needs to be told to the entire nation,” gushed Basumatary, who plays Jimmy.