BOTTOM LINE
Novel Sports Drama, Flawed but Watchable
PLATFORM
NETFLIX
RUNTIME
6Hrs 10Mins | 7 Episodes
What Is the Film About?
Brothers Dev and Ravi return home to Shaktigarh to find the person who brutally attacked their sister Gudiya. In pursuit of truth, they have a hard time dealing with their cold, distant father, Raghubir Singh. Their search leads them through a dangerous world of rival boxing clubs, undercover missions, and police chases. As Ravi fights his way towards Olympic trials, they also uncover a web of secrets.
Performances
The casting choices and the performances in the show are generally neat. Apart from the chocolate boy looks, Pulkit Samrat’s athleticism is a major advantage for his portrayal of Ravi; you naturally buy his zeal to succeed in the boxing ring. Divyenndu Sharma plays the troubled, disgruntled son with assurance. His body language and expressions suggest what the character may have endured for years.
Suvinder Vicky, as the red-flag father and obsessive coach, fits his part to the T. Kashmira Pardeshi is the surprise factor in terms of her panache, carrying herself elegantly in a role with varied shades. Vishal Vashishtha makes a mark too. The more prominent, promising faces, such as Sikandar Kher, Yashpal Sharma, Sayani Gupta, and Zakir Hussain, do not quite fire all cylinders in underwritten, template roles.
Analysis
Glory, as the title of the show says, is a tale centred on the desperation for success, how far it can push you and even destroy you. Shaktigarh serves as the epicentre of the unconventional sports drama that takes off with the murder of the country’s potential Olympic champion, Nihal Singh, an attack that also leaves his lover, Gudiya, battling for life. Gudiya’s brothers Dev and Ravi embark on a hunt to nab the culprit.
Besides the attack on Gudiya, the brothers have enough on their plate to deal with. Dev lost his leg after a violent episode with his father in childhood, eventually cutting ties with him. Ravi bears the guilt of being responsible for a friend’s death in a boxing match and leads a life in exile to guard himself from the victim’s family.
Meanwhile, their quest to nab the culprits provides a basis to examine the power hierarchies within the village and the interpersonal relationships with a wide range of subplots. Yet, it shoots itself in the foot too by doing that, affecting its momentum. The show is stuck between driving the core premise forward and fleshing out the subplots, leading to an uneven narrative.
The show moves around in circles, regularly distracting itself from the ‘message’ at the cost of world-building. There is too much going on, and it is hard to process the details, such as the unusual romance triangle among Ravi, his cop friend Arvind, and the latter’s wife. As you expect in a partly investigative story, the narrative shifts from one potential suspect to another, while establishing the lawlessness in the village.
While the investigation of the killings is the basic hook to draw you in, the show is meant to be a brutal critique of toxicity in sport and the pressure to define your life with ‘glory’. Throwing light on Haryana’s enviable record in producing sports champions, the show begins with a chilling backstory of a key character, who has no say over his career in boxing and is nearly tortured by his father to make progress.
However, what is quite evident is its inspiration from the pathbreaking English sports drama The Iron Claw. The latter similarly talks of a father’s obsession with sports glory that takes a heavy toll on their sons’ lives, until one of them decides to step back and put an end to the vicious cycle. This idea gets a rustic twist in Glory, with the rootedness of a sports saga like Mukkabaaz, married to the country’s social realities.
There are regular discussions in Glory on how Raghubir’s decisions in life affect their sons’ careers, the frivolity of revenge and the possibility of redeeming oneself through sport. What slightly bothers you is the way it treats the lives of Nihal and Gudiya as mere plot devices – the tale becomes less about them and more about the men who want to settle scores.
Taking all its problems into consideration, say the long-drawn storytelling and the stuffy screenplay, the show is still a much-needed wake-up call for parents in an Indian scenario. It is not okay to burden children with expectations, and they should instead be allowed to find their own way; it is almost the antithesis of Dangal. Glory explores this idea at an extreme level, though you very much appreciate its ‘intent’.
Music and Other Departments?
Glory scores big with its technical finesse, with John Stewart Eduri’s peppy, vibrant score complementing the edgy, slick visuals of cinematographer John Russel Schmidt and the flashy edits. The action choreography is a mixed bag, part raw and part lazy, not creating enough tension and vulnerability in the sequences. The exhaustive run-time is also a patience tester, diving deep into one subplot after the other and diluting the impact.
Highlights?
Unique theme
Good performances
Classy, sophisticated execution
Drawbacks?
Loses track mid-way
Too many subplots dilute the impact
Exhaustive runtime
Did I Enjoy It?
For a major part, yes, though it could’ve still been better
Will You Recommend It?
If you don’t mind a mix of a gritty sports drama with an element of crime, you may give it a chance
Glory Netflix Webseries Reviewed by M9 News
