Boxing in on some movies
With the passage of time, we stop being the people we once were and start becoming the person that we never thought we could be. From being someone who detested karela (cooked or otherwise) to someone who relishes roasted karela chips, from being critical of an ideology to finding merits in it, from being a diehard cricket fan to becoming a club football fan, from avoiding strangers to seeking friends in a relatively new city, and so on—you keep evolving faster than you think, slower than you notice. So, yes, in this vein, of late, I’ve become very fascinated with boxing.
For the past few months, I’ve been consuming a lot of boxing-related videos on YouTube, old articles and new podcasts about the rise and fall of prizefighters, the allure of rags-to-riches-back-to-rags champions, and the many biting brutal facets associated with punching for a living. I even started catching up on old movies based on boxing. No, not the popular ones like Raging Bull (1980) or Million Dollar Baby (2004)—I’ve already watched and enjoyed both of these a long time ago—but the more obscure ones.
Anyway, I believe this newfound desire to become a boxer someday—although I should be too old to begin—stems from a constant burden of unfinishing. There is a quitter’s aura about me and if I am confined to a boxing ring, I might finally not try to escape and accept my fate for what it is. Winner or loser. I find that finality a massive relief. To know where you stand (or fall) as a man. Also, as a bonus, this could be my chance at having a physical and mental makeover as well. To paraphrase Travis Bickle, it’s high time I made every muscle in my body more pronounced than ever before. Enough of lethargy, debilitating headrush, lack of focus, low stamina and lower self-esteem.
Once the isolating edge of the pandemic wore off, it became obvious that you need people around you. You can’t go on and spend your days in a self-imposed prison called ‘your room’. But then, it’s not really easy to make new friends at the age of 36. Trust me on this. No matter how affable a human you are, there is a cutoff in the friendship queue. Yes, you can always hold on to your old friends but daily meme-sharing on Instagram and links on WhatsApp can’t match the joy of offline interactions. Nope, sorry.
If you are wondering where boxing fits in this narrative, well, when you can’t find your foot, you seek the sky. This is what I suppose will happen: I’ll train and train for months, maybe years, and then I’ll step into the ring to fight someone I’ve never met before. It will be a 5-round match and my goal would be to last till the end. Even if I lose, it’s perfectly alright. My idea of a victory is slightly different from yours. I just need to be someone who doesn’t quit. By the end of the match—irrespective of the ultimate result—my face would be bloody and my left eye would be swollen and the right side of my right eye trickling despite the patchwork; there will be punch marks on my torso, visibly more so on my sides. However, my heart rate would be steady and there would be no hint of fear left in my spine. My body would be warm despite the sweat profusely dropping down my hair. I would be at peace standing in the middle of the square box. When the referee declares the winner, I’ll hug my opponent and he’ll whisper something on the lines of “good fight” not knowing that he is going to be my best friend soon.
Now that we are done with my boxing fable, let’s quickly walk through some of the movie reccos I’ve got for you. All these feature films are from the boxing genre.
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