Karate Kid in Mirzapur

Title: Glory

Directors: Karan Anshuman and Kanishk Varma

Cast: Divyenndu, Pulkit Samrat, Suvinder Vicky, Ashutosh Rana, Sayani Gupta, Jannat Zubair Rahmani, Sikandar Kher

Where: Netflix

Rating: HHH

Kabir Singh Bhandari

Glory is a sports-crime thriller series where two brothers from a dysfunctional family confront their coach father while investigating the murder of their sister. The story takes place in Shaktigarh, a small boxing town in Haryana. Instead of putting us through a complete boxing-related biopic, which obviously we’ve seen so much of already via the multiple Rocky movies, and then in Bollywood with Toofan (2021) and Mukkabaz (2017), here the boxing aspect is mixed up with a gritty crime thriller, which keeps us hooked throughout.

Actors’ performance

Divyenndu is in his comedic and aggressive element, similar to the one we have seen him in Mirzapur, with the chief difference being that here the factor of ungirdled power is taken away, and he is in a position where he is the one who has lost a lot in life. Pulkit Samrat is earnest in his role as the good brother scarred by an untoward past incident, and actually looks like he’s trained to have a rock-solid physique as a boxer.

Suvinder Vicky is apt for such roles, like he has shown in Kohrra. Here, he is the very respected, but in certain aspects almost psychotic, sports coach, which in some cases one probably has to be to be able to produce world champions. Ashutosh Rana is the one who is ambitious and cannot be trusted. Sikandar Kher seems to be on a spree where he is getting memorable opening sequences in every project he is a part of—the last one being in Ikkis, and the second one being his pseudo-Gabbar-like character here.

In the henchmen category, the actor playing the menacing Ramchandar certainly stands out. Yashpal Sharma predominantly has been the person we love to hate, whether it is in the first half 

of Lagaan or Ab Tak Chappan. Here too, he is a notorious, powerful figure who helps bring the gritty flavour of the Haryana heartland to the series.

You see a lot of tall, big-built, muscular fighters in action movies, but after a long time, one saw a baddie who stood out in the form of the actor who played Balli, an injection-fuelled underground fighter, although that fight finished off too soon. 

There is a certain fight sequence where both Divyenndu and Pulkit are up against a whole lot of other baddies, reminiscent of the movie Dillagi, when Sunny Deol comes in to help Bobby Deol, who’s been beaten to a pulp by a whole lot of other goons.

Here, it would be wrong to ask ‘who is the best actor’—because the major credit needs to be given to the writers and director, so kudos to Karan Anshuman, Kanishk Varma, and the others.

Music

During the high-intensity action and non-action sequences, the music really adds in bumping up the tempo.

FPJ verdict

If you like series with a mix of action, drama, and mild suspense, try it out.