Boxer (1984)

At first i thought this film would be a rip off of Rocky, but this bollywood boxing drama holds its own very well, with a very nice even if somewhat predictable story, the performances were great and its highly enjoyable

Dharma (Danny denzongpa) a reasonably accomplished boxer is promised lots of favours should he win his next fight against Tiger another reputed fighter

A day before the match Dharma has a stomach pain but he ignores it, on the big day Tiger punches him in the stomach and Dharma is rendered weak, Tiger wins the fight

As a result of losing the match he loses money, and all the promised favours plus the doctor tells him to quit boxing as any further matches will be hazardous to his health. As a result of all these calamities Dharma becomes a drunkard

His son Shankar (Mithun Chakraborty) starts stealing, Dharma also starts resenting his son for not wanting to follow in his footsteps by becoming a boxer

Shankar meets Rajni (Rati Agnihotri) and they both fall in love with each other over time


Their love is threatened after Shankar is revealed as a thief at her birthday party by her father's friend whom Shankar had stolen from

Shankar goes to Jail , upon coming out he promises his mother Savitri (Tanuja) he won't steal anymore, he also reunites with his girlfriend Rajni


Boxing trainer Tony Braganza (Parikshat Sahni) had helped Raghuraj (Sharat Saxena) to the top but Raghuraj betrayed him and caused him to go to Jail


Following his release from Jail, Tony is on the hunt for a new boxer who would surpass Raghuraj's so he chooses Shankar whom he had met in Jail, although Shankar had turned him down at first when he falls on hard times he comes to Tony for 50,000 Rupees

Tony decides to give him if he would fight Raghuraj and then whether he loses or win he would be able to keep the money

Thus Tony starts training Shankar for the big fight


On the day of the big fight Shankar loses and his right eye is seriously injured


The doctor tells him any more hits to the eye and he'll be blind, his wife Rajni makes him promise not to box again

His father is Unhappy as Dharma had seen Shankar taking up boxing as an opportunity to show the world there is a champion in his blood

One day Shankar's younger brother Sonu gets injured and 2 lakhs is required to treat him, simultaneously a new boxng deal is offered to Shankar where he'll be able to earn 2 lakhs if he fights once more with Raghuraj

Will Shankar take up the opportunity? Will he risk going blind for boxing? Watch Boxer to find out

Overall i enjoyed watching Boxer, its an entertaining drama with all round great performances, even though a bit predictable in parts, it held my attention and in an era that was so replete with love stories here and there boxer is quite refreshing even though it had the atypical triumph through tragedy sports theme. The boxing scenes were well filmed and researched and it feels like you're watching an actual boxing match on Tv

Gotta love that big golden eagle on the floor of the boxing ring

The performances are great all around and it was nice seeing Danny in a sympathetic role as opposed to the usual villain fare

I also loved Rati Agnihotri in these, i loved her style, she is one of my favourute beauties from '80's bollywood

I'm a big Mithun fan but unfortunately he isn't seen by many to be a great performer which i guess was down to his choice in cheesy commercial flicks like Disco Dancer, Dance Dance etc. i liked him here just as much, he wasn't over melodramatic

Great music too from R.D. Burman from the disco sounds of 'Dekho Idhar' to the sweet romantic sounds of 'tere dil mein kuch kuch' my favourite has to be 'Shaadmani' where we see a joyful exuberant Danny singing and dancing


Total score: 7/10 (Entertaining boxing drama)

Here's a nice list of sports related bollywood movies