Glory

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. 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.

A web-series rooted in Haryana’s inimitable terra firma around one of its favourite sports: boxing. Yet ‘Glory’ isn’t your regular sports drama, or a story of an underdog making it big. Marrying murder mystery with the shenanigans of the game, which is at once dangerous and thrilling, the seven-episode series too treads the same path. In the very first episode, we are witness to the murder of a gifted boxer, Nihal Singh (Yugam Sood). An Olympic gold contender, he decides to elope with his girlfriend Gudiya (Jannat Zubair), daughter of his coach Raghubir Singh (Suvinder Vicky). Coming from the land where female foeticide and honour killings are rampant, you smell a rat. And the guessing game begins.

OTT पर खेल की पृष्ठभूमि पर कम ही शोज आए हैं। ऐसे में, क्रिकेट और मैच फिक्सिंग पर एमी नॉमिनेटेड सीरीज ‘इनसाइड एज’ बनाने वाले फिल्मकार करण अंशुमान अब नई सीरीज ‘ग्लोरी’ के साथ बॉक्सिंग रिंग में उतरे हैं। हालांकि, यहां जितने मुक्के रिंग में चलते हैं, उससे कहीं ज्यादा चाकू-छुरी, बम-धमाके उसके बाहर होते हैं, क्योंकि असल में यह सीरीज बॉक्सिंग के इर्द-गिर्द बुनी गई एक इन्वेस्टिगेटिव क्राइम थ्रिलर है। 50-55 मिनट के 7 एपिसोड की यह सीरीज दिखाती है कि एक इंसान अपने सपने और महत्वाकांक्षा को पूरा करने के लिए किस हद तक जा सकता है।

Glory fits right into that popular OTT template where a murder or whodunit serves as the entry point, but the real focus is peeling back layers of a specific society, its pressures, dysfunctions, and cultural realities. As Kohrra subsides from the mindscape, Karan Anshuman takes us to the neighbouring Haryana and pegs a story on the boxing culture rooted in patriarchy that underlines the prosperous State. Karan, known for exposing cricket’s underbelly in Inside Edge and power struggles in Mirzapur, blends sports drama and crime thriller in a rustic flavour to tell a compelling tale with uneven outcomes.

Glory is loaded with familiar but strong elements: a murder mystery, a revenge arc, a dysfunctional family from Haryana, the competitive world of Indian boxing. The Netflix series created by Karan Anshuman and Karmanya Ahuja and directed by Anshuman and Kanishk Varma begins with the death of an Olympic hopeful being coached by Raghubir (Suvinder Vicky). Raghubir’s daughter is critically injured during the assault. News of this incident brings her estranged brothers Ravi (Pulkit Samrat) and Dev (Divyenndu) back to their hometown. Before long, the brothers return to a cycle of violence, ambition, vengeance and unresolved history.

Although the milieu is boxing and Haryana’s tough training culture, Glory’s revenge drama has more mayhem than medals on its mind. Director Karan Anshuman, along with co-writer Karmanya Ahuja and Vaibhav Vishal’s bombastic dialogues, strive to create a hostile universe populated by insidious, sly beings becoming hard targets of a family seeking justice. Swarming with characters of the good, bad and ugly kind, Glory juggles its whodunit goals and estranged father-son equation across a hoard of suspects and unreliable allies. The upshot is uneven yet watchable because of the talent on board.

An eloping couple is brutally attacked by masked goons in Haryana. He is killed, and she ends up in a coma. The incident brings the girl’s two brothers back to their hometown. They are forced to reunite with their estranged father — the abusive parent who once drove them away — in pursuit of revenge. ‘Justice’ is not an option. The younger son is softer and more forgiving of the dad; the elder one is wary and resentful. But the three men launch their own unofficial investigation; the suspects range from the father’s jealous rivals and local mafia bosses to corrupt politicians and Khap panchayat leaders. It quickly spirals into a violent whodunnit in a lawless land.