RIFLE RANGE BOY

Sarpatta Paramparai (சர்பட்ட பரம்பரை, Tamil, 2021) Written, Directed by Pa Ranjith One can learn a thing or two by watching films, i.e. if one is bothered to check the backstory. This is one rare full-length boxing film in Tamil, coming from a land that usually infuses familial masala to the storyline. In keeping with the timeline the story is set in, in the 1970s, there is ample sprinkling of Tamil Nadu politics to set the mood. For once, we see actors who really look their part as boxers. The make-up, boxing techniques and the make-believe props that cradles us back to the mid-1970s are convincing enough. Before watching this film, I did not know that boxing was a passionate sport in northern Madras even before the 1940s. Boxing came to India with the British. In Tamil Nadu, it was named 'kuttu chandei', and it came with its own set of rules. Boxers could not hit each others' faces, not the body. In the early 1940s, it seems there was a black British boxer (some say he is...

The Trials of Muhammad Ali (Documentary; 2013) This documentary offering is not an offering to highlight the achievements of the most famous pugilist of all time, the three-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Muhammad Ali but it concentrates on a particular time in his life when he had a brush with the American legal system. It focuses a point in the late 60s and early 70s when Ali was at the height of his youth. It starts with him narrating of his experience back home in 1960 after winning the gold medal in Rome Olympics. A restauranteur refused to serve him even though he had made his country proud. He goes on to tell about the hypocritical attitude of the members of his church. The calling to embrace Islam came in 1964, but his conversion came under the scrutiny of the radar when he decided to follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and his association with Nation of Islam, Malcolm X and Dr ML King. The Nation of Islam was classified as a radical group which fought f...